Hazelton Tourist Attractions

'Ksan Indian Village, near Hazelton, is an open-air museum near a traditional Gitksan Indian settlement. In summer there are also film shows and traditional dances. Various aspects of Gitskan culture are on display in seven tribal longhouses, each guarded by their ancient totem pole.Three houses can only be viewed as part of a guided tour of the 'Ksan Indian Village. This is an opportunity to learn about these people's daily lives and the potlatch ceremony, as well as the symbolism of the carving on the totem poles. A number of Indian carvers have their workshops in the village, and their work is on sale in the Gift Shop together with other Indian books and artifacts.The North Western National Exhibition Center and Museum houses valuable carvings and ritual objects.

The deep canyon on the north bank of the Bulkley River, near where it flows into the Skeena River, is spanned by a 76 m (250 ft)-high suspension bridge. Below it there used to be a rock that formed a kind of natural weir in the rushing river, used to their advantage by the Indians who lived mainly from salmon fishing. The Hagwilget village ruins, "the home of the quiet people", where the Indians lived, are to be found below the bridge. This was a Carrier Indian Village used only in summer, and archaeologists have found traces of the Hagwilget village ruins here dating back to 3000 bc. When the fishing authorities removed the rock in 1959, the Indians, who fished only with wooden fish traps and harpoons, found that their catches were drastically reduced, and the village was abandoned. As early as the 19th c. the Indians had skillfully constructed a wooden suspension bridge over the canyon.

Gitanmaks was an Indian village where in 1866 a Hudson's Bay Company outpost was established, only for it to be abandoned shortly afterwards. White settlers arriving in the 1870s christened the place "Hazelton" on account of its numerous hazelnut bushes, and from 1898 the settlement was the start of the so-called "poor folk's route" along the Telegraph Trail to the Yukon goldfields. With its many pioneer-age buildings and its location on the edge of the untapped wilderness, Hazelton still has very much the feel of a frontier town.

From Hazelton a road follows the valley of the Kispiox River for 14 km (81/2 mi.) to the small Indian village of Kispiox. The village has a splendid group of carved red cedar totem poles standing at the junction of the Skeena and Kispiox Rivers. Originally these poles stood in front of the long-houses belonging to the individual clans whose status and family history they depict. The very popular Kispiox Rodeo is held here every year in June.The village also hosts an annual Music Festival in June.