Harrison Mills and Harrison Hot Springs caught the eye of a YouTube channel featuring unusal attractions.
Exit Through the Gift Shop – not to be mistaken for the2010 British documentary featuring artist Banksy – is a YouTube channel chronicling the voyage through the off-beat and unusual across North America, narrated by a man named Graham.
A video shot in May features the Rat Portage Lumber Company Mill in Harrison Mills. The four-miunte mini-documentary delivers a comprehensive history of Harrison Mills and its early years featuring the saw mill and the incorporation of the Harrison River Mills Trading Company.
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The Rat Portage Company pulled out of Harrison Mills at the end of World War I. A fire destroyed most of the remains of the mill in 1930.
The narrator visits the original footprint of the boiler room, just off the train tracks.
“It’s actually a very beautiful area,” Graham comments. “All that remains are these rock walls where the lumber mill once stood.”
Graham discovered elaborate graffiti on the site as well as a fire pit. There’s a serenity of a sunny, mid-spring day as birds chrip above a clean, quiet Harrison River.
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From there, he moved on to Kilby Heritage Site, the majority of which was closed at the time; he did tease a potential return down the line.
Exit Through the Gift Shop features other destinations across the lower mainland, including the Sasquatch Museum Harrison Hot Springs, Bedrock City in Bridal Falls and the popular filming location, the iconic Fort Langley Community Hall.
The channel currently has 1,860 subscribers and has been posting since 2019. Check out their channel at www.youtube.com/c/ExitThrutheGiftShop.
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