Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump

It must have been quite the sight to see; scores of charging bison tumbling off a 10 meter cliff to their death. This flood to the senses happened at Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump annually over the past 6000 years until the total depletion of Bison by 1860 or so. There are other buffalo jumps scattered throughout the west but this one is well preserved and has a spectacular visitor centre/museum hosted by local Blackfoot native people. This is also a World Heritage Site that is visited by thousands of people annually.

Imagine Buffalo Pouring Over This Cliff

We walked the paths and trails at the base of the cliff on the main killing ground. The native campsite would have been placed upwind away from the odours and out of sight of the charging herds. There is a small spring and shallow coulee at the cliff base where water would have been available for drinking, cleaning and boiling fat from bones. This mass slaughter would have been a gruesome sight, even cruel by today’s sensibilities, but was a life giving necessity then. Bison provided food, clothing, shelter and tools for the Blackfoot people. A successful hunt was a time for celebration, much like our own Thanksgiving celebration. A bountiful harvest assured everyone’s survival for the coming year.

Bison Skull

The native people planned this hunt for weeks in advance and it took place in the fall of each year. The cooler temperatures would have helped to preserve the meat and the bison hides would be prime and fully furred in preparation for winter. Cairns of stones and brush would be strategically placed, like a giant funnel, along a well planned route designed to force the bison to the cliff. Runners, wearing wolf skin robes would slowly begin to move the herd using the bison’s own protective nature and tendencies to herd together to combat danger. Soon the herd was moving faster and gathering together and then breaking into a run. Native men converged from the sides to prevent escape from the cairn dotted runway and quickly an all out stampede was happening. Dust billowed from churning hooves, calls and bleats of cows and calves trying to stay in touch, coughing, grunting, horns clicking and hooves rumbled over the prairie landscape to the cliff brink. The front runners tried to stop but were pushed on by the rest of the herd, over the cliff. Most would have been killed outright but some of the last would have only been maimed. Hunters based at the cliff base used arrows, rock clubs and spears to finish any wounded buffalo. An awful silence would then have descended over the valley as the enormity of the event was absorbed.

Then began the work of butchering with skinning, gutting and dragging carcasses away for further processing. When separated the carcass would be de-boned and meat cut into strips to hang on drying racks. Hides would need to be staked out for fleshing, drying and then tanning. Bones and fat would be rendered and stored in cleaned out bladders or stomachs. Sinew would be gathered and stretched and rawhide strips cut and made soft and pliable.

Blackfoot Tipi at the Jump

Along the cliff base and in the surrounding hills are many wild berries such as saskatoons, cranberries and chokecherries which were used to make nutritious and portable pemmican. The limbs of chokecherry were also favoured for making arrows.

With a successful hunt came a time of celebration; dancing, drumming, songs and stories would have echoed off the sandstone cliffs. Soon the well stocked people would scatter to their home lands for shelter from impending winter.

As we walk along the trails around this heritage site, we use our imagination to envision what must have been a powerful assault on all senses. It was a different time and a different way of life. The basics of life today are the same, food, shelter and security but with a much different way of getting there.

The Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump is located about 20 kilometres north and west of Fort McLeod in southwestern Alberta. It is open year around and it costs about 12.00 to enter but worth every penny. This is one of the best museums I have ever seen depicting any event. It is wheel chair accessible and has rest rooms, gift shop and small cafe where you can order a genuine Buffalo Burger for lunch.

Glacial Erratic Under Cliffs and Big Prairie Sky

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Canola Harvest

Towering dust clouds attract my attention as I drive the back roads of rural Alberta on this hot, late summer day. Combine harvesters are running flat out threshing standing or swathed grain. Wheat, barley, canola with some peas are the main crops grown in this region located north and east of Edmonton. The area around Fort Saskatchewan is some of the very best agricultural crop land in Western Canada. Deep, dark, fertile soil combined with adequate rainfall, long sunny days and relatively long growing seasons produce above average yields of grain.

Geese Heading to Harvested Fields of Grain

 I stopped to take some photos of one of the larger farm operations in the region on Saturday. They are running four new S-680 John Deere combines with 35 foot straight cut headers. It is an impressive sight to see:  four machines travelling down a standing field of canola as the grain cart operator rushes from one to the other dumping hoppers full of black seed on the fly. 140 feet of grain is cut each length of the field at over 4 miles per hour means a quarter section of land is harvested in just a few hours. Each combine should be able to cut 160 acres per day given decent harvesting weather. You couldn’t design a better day than today for this farmer. It is about 25 degrees and the west wind is blowing about 20 miles per hour. Hay and straw bales are scattered accross many fields as geese vee their migrating way through blue skies as dust and chaff billows out the back end of each combine while reels bat the standing crop into the front end.

I flag one combine down for a ride and get a new education. These new machines hardly resemble the combines of my youth. First of all, they are large. The 35 feet of header is hydraulically controlled automatically by computer with the help of sensors located underneath.  The reel doesn’t just flail away either. It is also controlled electronically. These combines are steered, not by human operators, but by Global Positioning Systems (GPS) assistance. I watched as the operator turned at the end of the field then let the combine strike off a new swath through the standing crop. The next combine will have exactly the correct width of swath for the full length of the field. The GPS system knows where in the field it is at all times and runs perfectly straight lines as well. This is impossible to do manually. We used to try it with the old machines but could never come anywhere near perfect. Think of the efficiency of operation when you drive these huge machines to full potential all the time. There are no more pie shaped or narrow strips to cut with a small portion of header unless the field is cut up by obstacles.

Another 35 Foot Swath Harvested

 Electronics continuously monitor yield and moisture content of the crop as well. I remember having to drive to town to get the moisture content tested at the grain elevator before knowing if the grain was safe to store. Dry grain will store in the bin safely while waiting for delivery to markets. Tough or damp grain will heat and spoil very quickly making it worth much less money or destroying it completely. The field of canola being harvested today is testing 8% moisture at 52 bushels per acre. This is an average yield in this area but well above average for other regions of Alberta. This field is a bit cut up by sloughs, bush and a small farmstead so has about 400 acres so will yield approximately 21,000 bushels of canola. Each bushel weighs about 50 pounds. Right now the fluctuating price of canola sits at about $9.00 per bushel.

Each bushel of this oil seed contains about 45% oil so there should be about 1200 liters of oil per acre or 480,000 liters of high quality cooking oil in this field.

4 In a Row

The 55% remaining of the seed is meal which is used as a high protein supplement in animal feed.

Years ago, the one of my first jobs was working for a large farmer in the Wanham area of Northern Alberta. They had 5 model 95 John Deere combines and we wondered if that was as big as it could get. That was only about 15 years after the combine took over from stationary threshing machines. Since then it has been about 55 years to advance harvest technology to the current state of efficiency. Previous to computers and GPS technology, combines had just got larger in size. Who knows where farm technology will be in another 50 years.

Sunset Harvest

Harvest is my favorite season of the farming cycle. This is the time when all the work, worry, weather and risk has finally all come together for a total quantity. The next few months will be spent monitoring, hauling and marketing the harvest as well as finishing the final accounting for the year. Planning for the next year will begin the cycle all over.

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Grasslands National Park , Spectacular

We got plenty of questioning looks when we said we were going to tour Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan for our holidays this year. I had Grasslands National Park as my main destination but almost missed it as there were so many distractions to see along the way. As it was, we only got to see the west block of the park so will have to go back for a second look.
Distances are vast in these provinces. The prairie stretches on and on and on; always another rise, coulee, more grass and sky. I have to think of our ancestor settlers who came by oxen drawn Red River Carts. These rough and durable boxes on wooden wheels move at about 2 miles per hour on flat ground. Every coulee, hill, creek or river added additional time to getting anywhere. A man on a horse might travel 4 to 5 miles per hour so what we may travel in our car in one hour would take up to 3 days for them to cover. I look over the landscape and see cart jarring rocks and gopher holes to fall into and unreachable horizons stretching on into a distant bluish haze. Progress would have been marked by the passing of a distant rock or the ascent of the next ridge line. This land seems flat but it is not. It undulates and flows for miles, through drainage coulees and draws, small knolls and natural dips and swales. On any rise you overlook long miles over seemingly deserted land.
This prairie is treeless except for shelter belts that were planted by settlers trying to minimize the wind while collecting drifting snow. There are places where there is not a single tree for as far as you can see. I saw one tree that chose the road side ditch to live and it had been preserved. It was the only woody specimen in this area. It looked very bedraggled by few branches sticking out the east facing bole, but stood proudly, doing its part to provide shelter and a roost for hunting hawks. The seed for this tree must have been dropped off on a flyover dropping from a passing bird.
It is agricultural land, for the most part, these days. Some of this land is now cropped and the land that is too marginal or rocky is pastured. There are many sections of hard grass land that feed very healthy herds of cattle. It requires many more acres of ground to feed a cow here than it does on tame grass pasture but this hard, prairie grass is very nutritious.
The cropped land, this year anyway, has had too much rain throughout southern Saskatchewan so many crops are later than usual. Farmers are going to be under tremendous stress before their grains are all stored safely in the bins.

Abandoned Prairie Homestead

As we drive, I wonder at the stories that the walls of the abandoned farmhouses and homesteads could tell. There are many beautiful looking old homes that are no longer used. Many of them are situated on a slight rise with tremendous views of surrounding landscape. The beauty of the land grew upon these settlers as it does on me.  Ever-changing skies, spectacular thunderstorms, big, brightly lit night skies, sunrises and sunsets along with the play of mid day light across the visible miles draw us in. Did the optimistic builders sell out to larger farmers, go broke or frustrated and give up or pass away with no interested heirs? We are losing these stories as the older generations pass away.
I remember running some of this equipment and trucks that the prairie is slowly reclaiming. Wind, moisture, insects, time and neglect assist the prairie's reclamation efforts. I have to think back to when the farmer drove his brand new, to him, 1949 Chevrolet truck into the yard and filled it with grain harvested from the once mighty Massey Harris 92 combine.

Chevy 2 Ton Grain Truck Massey 92 in Background

Old churches and cemeteries mark the last plots of ground the pioneers will use. They are well maintained by future inhabitants and some of the stones give us some ideas about where they came from as well as their passions. We also noted school district signs marking where schools once stood. Many were one room schools with a pair of toilets set back in the yard and some even had hitching rails for the horses that carried students to their studies.
Once thriving, vital small towns show signs of dying a slow death due to neglect.  Potholed and cracked streets lead to boarded up stores and businesses and abandoned homes. Hidden infrastructure like water and sewer lines are crumbling and it will not be long before many towns cannot afford to maintain water or sewer treatment plants. There are a few optimistic “for sale” realty signs staked into neglected lawns or nailed onto tumbleweed-lined wooden fences. Prices are reasonable if you could find a way of making a living here. Many of the town schools have been closed or converted to other uses as student numbers dropped and continuous centralization occurs. Even once proud ball diamonds and backstops are no longer used and suffering similar decay due to abandonment. Former vital prairie sentinels, the grain elevators are being torn down and replaced by new power producing wind cyclone sentinels. The prairie is slowly reclaiming the land in its slow and patient manner. "The meek shall inherit the earth," is proven here. Like the wind that never ceases, the grass never stops growing or spreading to cover and protect the precious land.

Windy Wheat

Even amongst obvious neglect there is pride, promise and optimism for the future. Large farms and livestock operations have the most modern equipment and comfort available. Parts of the prairie are dotted by oil and gas wells, pipelines and pump jacks with storage tanks. Other farmers have diversified into raising new crops such as lentils, peas and bison. This always has been a land of change and will continue to evolve and thrive with sturdy people.
We did finally make it to the Grasslands National Park Visitor center in Val Marie, Sask. After getting some hints, directions and advice we headed down the road and across the Texas gates. As the name implies, this is grassland. It is a small fraction of a threatened, unique landscape now protected and preserved for future generations. This park will continue to grow as surrounding land can be purchased from existing landowners.

Plains Bison Bull

In 2005 about 75 Plains Bison were introduced to Grasslands Park from Elk Island National Park. In the spring of 2006 they were set free to roam where buffalo are supposed to roam. In 2013, the herds numbered about 350 members and are doing very well. The bison we saw look very healthy and content. They suit this landscape as expected. Bison are good for the land and the grass. With a combination of grazing, wallows, prairie dogs and fire the park will slowly revert to natural prairie grasslands.

Black Tailed Prairie Dog

We drove into a Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colony too. These critters are known to be keystone species to prairie grasslands. These prairie engineers provide homes to endangered and threatened species such as the burrowing owl, prairie rattlesnakes, Horned lizards, Swift fox and most endangered of all, the Black-footed Ferret. The burrows they create mix soil strata, fertilize with droppings and carcasses, allow rainfall water in and grass seeds to germinate. They provide food for hawks and owls, ferrets as well as coyotes and foxes. This chunky little ground squirrel is very alert and entertaining to watch. They are much larger than the pocket gopher that is also native to this region. One of the highlights, for me, was to see a wild Burrowing Owl. These shy little owls are listed on the endangered list due to habitat loss and chemical spray residues. Today, we spotted 3 of them scattered throughout this prairie dog colony.

Endangered Burrowing Owl

There are many short trails to information placards scattered along the road through the park. These worthwhile informative signs describe many aspects of the terrain, the settlers and wildlife that you may be looking at.
We wandered away from the car to have a look into the Frenchman River valley. Here, we spotted the first Bison in the park. Two solitary bulls were grazing calmly in the river valley, well away from a larger herd of cows and calves. They suit this area very well. These two bulls were in premium condition with prime coats ready for the coming winter. I had to get closer so I wandered down the hill behind a knoll, well hidden and downwind from the grazers. Bison are not supposed to have great eyesight, but they spotted me as soon as I stuck my head above the hill top. We were about 150 yards away so they did not panic and run away. I enjoyed the time I spent with these two icons of the grasslands.

Where the Buffalo Roam

As I gazed around with my binoculars, I spotted three, cud-chewing, mule deer bucks lying on a windswept side hill about 300 yards away. They were a bit downwind but I could stalk them from behind another knoll, which I did. I emerged through some sage wavering in the wind to a point that I could watch them. One of them caught my wind and stood up which caused the others to also stand up and mill about. They could smell me but couldn’t see me so were confused. Five or ten minutes passed before the spooky one lay back down. I backed off behind my hill and wandered back toward my distant car. Even if the land looks lifeless and flat and barren, I learned long ago that you just have to sit down for a few minutes and watch. It never ceases to amaze me what emerges from hidden hidey-holes.
As the day was progressing we thought we would check out a local B&B called the Rosefield Church Guest House. It cost 125.00 per day so we booked one night then headed to Val Marie, about ½ hour away, for groceries and supper. This guesthouse no longer serves breakfast unless by special order. Many of their guests are artists or photographers who typically leave before sunrise, so they miss breakfast. They do provide a fully stocked kitchen so you could provide yourself with any meals you like. We got back in time to watch the sunset in Grassland Park. The light is beautiful here at this hour, not to be missed by any photographer or sky watchers. Grasslands is a dark sky preserve so we got out and watched the Milky Way as best we could with the waxing full moon. Timing and luck must be right for everything. Distant coyote chatter brought to life an otherwise quiet night as I wandered down the gravel road. I am not a very nocturnal creature but do enjoy the night time in any wilderness setting. It is certainly a special time here under the prairie sky.

Golden Sunrise

Dewy Dragonfly

We were up before daylight and on the road in search of a great viewpoint from which to watch the sunrise. Fog rose stealthily from the meandering river and dew sparkled as first chilly, golden rays shone onto hanging spider webs and nestled dragonflies. Once again, walk slowly and see what you are looking at proved to be valuable advice this morning. Beauty is in the details of the grasses at our dew soaked shoes and pant legs, not just in the glorious, wide open landscape.

Spider WebTiara

 

Beauty on the Prairies

We drove across part of the prairie region last week. I will cover several highlights over the next few weeks, so this is a quick look at the region we wandered around in. We put 3500 kilometers on our car over the past week of exploration. 10 times that many will still not cover the land properly.

 I am sure that you can see further on the prairies than you can on the ocean. It is flat, generally, but there are rises, rolls, coulees, river valleys and hills that undulate, like ocean swell and rogue waves. The trees you see are generally planted trees. They are windbreaks for homestead shelter from the predominantly west wind or strips designed to catch snow, thereby preserving moisture. Each tree was ordered from a catalogue sponsored by the government to try to make the prairies and farms more habitable. Caragana, Manitoba maple, black poplar and more made dense habitats for birds, wildlife and humans who all needed and welcomed relief from the ever blowing wind. Without the hand planted trees, there are none. You can drive for miles without seeing a single tree. Sage brush comes as close to woody as you can find for the most part. In some areas berries such as Saskatoons or Chokecherry shrubs grow, especially in coulees or draws where there may be a bit more moisture and shelter from the wind and direct sunlight. More than 70 species of grass are the main ground cover here. Needle and thread grass, fescue, wheat grass and prickly pear cactus grow on the parched land. This land can be 35 degrees or more in summer and more than 40 degrees below in winter. It is a dry heat and dry cold but add wind for a blast furnace summer drying effect and windchill in winter. The prairie is a land of extremes and constant change and challenge. It can deceive you into thinking it might be easy to live here. It can also deceive you into thinking it would be impossible to thrive here. You do not have to drive far to see abandoned farm buildings and machinery, but they are found wherever anyone farms or settles. Evidence of people living on this land dates back almost 10,000 years. We paused at a medicine wheel that has been dated back to times before the Egyptians built the pyramids.

Centre Cairn of the Sundial Hill Medicine Wheel

Teepee rings are found in hundreds of places across the prairie grassland region of North America. We paused at the Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump in Southern Alberta where evidence of human habitation has been found from more than 5000 years ago. This land as we see it today was formed and shaped by a glacier that totally covered most of the central and northern plains and then began receding 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. Large rocks called "erratics" are evidence to the movement of the giant glacier which dropped rocks carried from the Rocky Mountains into Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Glacial Erratic at Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump

These rocks have been used as scratching stones by Bison from herds, numbering by some estimates 60 million strong, that once grazed the land. Bison moved, like the hunters and gatherers who followed them, grazing, fertilising, mating and birthing feeding on the land until being almost completely wiped out in a wasteful blood lust of greed and debauchery. Unlike the passenger pigeon, bison had a few long sighted benefactors who could see what may happen and herded a few hundred survivors to private preserves and then to government protected parks. From less than a thousand surviving bison, we now have a fairly stable number that are being monitored and raised and moved to other regions to re-establish viable, healthy populations. We saw some of the transplanted plains bison in Grasslands National Park that have been moved from Elk Island National Park. They belong here, they suit the country perfectly. They are a wonder to see and we can only imagine what must have been at one time.

The Alberta Birds of Prey Nature Centre was a highlight for me to see. Dedicated people rescue sick and injured wildlife in hopes of healing and returning them to the wild. 

Flight Demo of Harris hawk by Dedicated Rehabilitator

Owls, hawks, eagles and more on on display. Many are too damaged to return to the wild. One bald eagle is blind, a victim of someone with a shotgun, but he is still and eagle; proud, defiant, regal and aware. He watches with glass eyes as you move around him, using heightened senses other than his sight. Free flight demonstrations by a Harris hawk or barn owl show how dependent birds are to food, just like our dogs and cats. I saw my first burrowing owl here and later saw wild ones in Grasslands. Many of these endangered owls will be released in hopes of raising wild numbers to where we no longer have to interfere. We saw Calgary Zoo staff in Grasslands Park here to count black-footed ferrets, another endangered species from this region. The ferret and the burrowing owls both live with their prey, the black tailed prairie dog, another threatened species. All these species along with the tiny Swift fox, Greater Short Horned lizard and prairie rattlesnake are threatened or endangered due to habitat loss, poisoning, over hunting and agricultural practises.

Pronghorn Family

Another aspect of the prairie region I like to explore is the settlement of the land by immigrants from Europe and Asia during the past 100 years. The European exploration and exploitation of the land and its native people and wildlife began 100 years earlier by fur traders and trappers which I have touched on in previous posts. My family ancestors took part in the agricultural settlement of the land in the early 1900s when my maternal great great grand parents arrived at  Bittern Lake, Alberta and in 1927 when my paternal grandfather arrived to take a homestead in the Peace River region.

The prairie region of Canada covers a vast area of varied habitats. Some of these areas are more people friendly than others to thrive in but none were easy.

I like to read and peruse history books that have been written over the past 20 years or so by various historical societies. The family stories are all transferable to any other region. Big families, hard times, weather, drought, floods, fire, pestilence, accidents, church and schools, no money, good or poor crops, cattle and wheat prices were and still are common issues that were dealt with year after year.

I look forward to exploring these places and issues for the next few weeks.

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