Bald Hill                                                                                                                 Robert Scriba

Bald Hill from the top looking south

     Bald Hill is the center piece of a small farming community of Heart Valley, Alberta. At the end of the road to the south is the Bad Heart River and to the north is Kakut Creek. The two watercourses join about five miles to the east to form the point of the "Heart". The wide point of the heart north west of this hill is about five miles in width. As I said to start, this area is a mixed agricultural area. It is to the point of the heart that my grand father from Germany settled in 1927. To the south of this viewpoint is where my Great Grand Parents settled in the same year. That copse at the top right hand side of this photo is the home my Dad lived in after taking over his grand parents homestead. Living this near to Bald Hill made us aware but almost dismissive of it. We took it for granted and did not really think too much about it.

      For some reason lately, I have been wondering, "How tall is Bald Hill?" The land all around this dominant feature of our community seems generally flat but there is a slight slope away from the hill to the creeks. This week while on our Christmas visit to see family and friends, I took my GPS and drove through the country to try to get some accurate figures. Modern technology is a fantastic tool which destroys myths that have been ingrained in our thoughts for most of my lifetime. This hill used to be a treacherous climb on a bicycle for young, adventurous boys. The south side was not too bad but the north side got to be extreme. There used to be only a slight track made by tractors looking for a shortcut to the other side. It was a pair of ruts with a center of prairie grass. If it rained it was impassable. In winter, large snow drifts obliterated this trail. 

     A friend of mine and I once raced our bicycles down the north side. He was braver than I and was ahead until a stick flipped up into his front wheel spokes. I was able to witness a spectacular tumble and had to endure his whining and crying over his broken wrist and damaged bike.

     The top of the hill has never been broken for farming so it is still a well known Saskatoon patch interspersed by native grass, odoriferous silver willow and stunted aspen. It is sometimes used as pasture to a few horses. I wonder if native people ever used this hill as a camping site or hunting outlook?

     My GPS tells me that the east-west road along the south side of the hill is 655 meters elevation. The top of Bald Hill is at 698 meters. The north side road is at 639 meters. This makes the actual height of the hill to be a measly 59 meters or 195 feet. This is about the height of two large spruce trees. Wow, I could have sworn that it was a lot taller but we all know how things seem to shrink as we get older.

     For further info, the range of Saddle Hills, to the south is about 815 meters so about 217 meters taller than Bald Hill. The Bad Heart River is about 60 meters deep so if we inverted Bald Hill and placed it into this creek, it would disappear.

The Smokey River valley to the east is about 154 meters deep.

Bald Hill from the South West

     As I wander through my home community, I'm reminded of how this place has changed in my lifetime. Many families lived and farmed on this land. We used to fill a large school bus to Wanham but there are no kids other than the few at the local Hutterian Colony below the north side of the hill. Individual farmers have been bought out and moved away. I think there is only one or two farmers other than the Colony farming within the drainage of the hill. It was a wonderful place to be raised and live as young boys.