Trails Across The Prairies
Tales From The Grasslands
These grasslands lying east of the Southern Alberta Rockies were once among the greatest grasslands on the planet. But as Canada grew westward, the plains were plowed up, fenced in, grazed, and almost completely transformed.
Fortunately there are pockets of the grasslands that remain, where you can almost reach back to a time two hundred years ago when bison thrived across these grasslands that border the Bow river.
The name Bow refers to the reeds that grew along its banks and were used by the First Nations to make bows. The Blackfoot language name for the river is "Makhabn" meaning "river where bow reeds grow". First Nations used the river's valleys for the bison hunt, in which herds of bison were driven over cliffs or into valleys where they could be killed more easily with bows and arrows.
The Bow flowing through this prairie landscape has channels and currents weaving together a portrait of a prairie river before joining forces with the Oldman river near Grassy Lake Alberta, creating that other great prairie river the South Saskatchewan.
The South Saskatchewan's major tributary is the great Badlands river of eastern Alberta the Red Deer that joins the South Saskatchewan near Empress Sk.........these thoughts coursing through my mind as I tramped through the grasslands bordering the Bow.
Today, the free flowing river systems of yesteryear along with the grasslands have all been transformed, hopefully we don't obliterate them completely in our quest to better ourselves.
Expand the photo for a closer look......
grasslandsprairieplainsbisonhuntersouth saskatchewanlongbowhoward hillquivertraditional archerybow riverblackfootred deer riverbuffalo
