The Dirt Hills and neighbouring Cactus Hills, are an arcuate

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

and the largest glacial push in the world. The hills were formed during the deglaciation of the last ice age over 10,000 years ago. They are located in the southern region of the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, east of

Old Wives Lake Old Wives Lake is a shallow saline lake in south central Saskatchewan, Canada, about 30 km south-west of Moose Jaw. The lake is fed by the Wood River but seasonal water relatively flattened the terrain, and as such results in significant ...

and about south-east of

Moose Jaw Moose Jaw is the fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javians ...

and are part of the

Bearpaw Formation The Bearpaw Formation, also called the Bearpaw Shale, is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age. It outcrops in the U.S. state of Montana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was named for the Bear P ...

within

Palliser's Triangle Palliser's Triangle, or the Palliser Triangle, is a semi-arid steppe occupying a substantial portion of the Western Canadian Prairie Provinces, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, within the Great Plains region. While initially determined to be uns ...

and the

Great Plains ecoregion The ecology of the Great Plains is diverse, largely owing to their great size. Differences in rainfall, elevation, and latitude create a variety of habitats including short grass, mixed grass, and tall-grass prairies, and riparian ecosystems. Th ...

. As the last ice age was ending, there was a lot of glacial movement and the compressive flow of the ice sheet forced the glaciers to re-advance up the

Missouri Coteau The Missouri Coteau, or Missouri Plateau, (french: Coteau du Missouri) is a large plateau that stretches along the eastern side of the valley of the Missouri River in central North Dakota and north-central South Dakota in the United States. In t ...

escarpment. The advancing ice sheet acted like a bulldozer pushing, moving, and uplifting earth until in ran into the upward slope of the escarpment. The Dirt Hills are composed mostly of

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

and

drift Drift or Drifts may refer to: Geography * Drift or ford (crossing) of a river * Drift, Kentucky, unincorporated community in the United States * In Cornwall, England: ** Drift, Cornwall, village ** Drift Reservoir, associated with the village ...

that was stacked up to form a single block thick where the ice sheet ended its advance. The moraine is almost in area with a height of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. The Cactus Hills and the Dirt Hills form an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

shaped

landform A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, ...

. The north-western side of the amphitheatre-shaped moraine is called the Cactus Hills and the eastern and southern portion is the Dirt Hills. During the deglaciation of that last ice age, there was a glacial sub-lobe, also known as a tongue, between the hills named Spring Valley ice tongue. It is named after the community of Spring Valley that sits at the head of where the ice tongue was. The Dirt Hills are , rise above the surrounding prairie, and are long. They stretch from Claybank in the east to

Galilee Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...

in the west. The Cactus Hills rise to a height of above sea level.

History

Evidence of

First Nation Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

s living among the hills is shown by

teepee A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...

rings and burial markers throughout the hills. About away from the Avonlea Badlands at the eastern end of the Dirt Hills, is a

buffalo jump A buffalo jump, or sometimes bison jump, is a cliff formation which Indigenous peoples of North America historically used to hunt and kill plains bison in mass quantities. The broader term game jump refers to a man-made jump or cliff used for hun ...

. The 1874

March West The March West was the initial journey of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) to the Canadian Prairies, Canadian prairies, made between July 8 and October 9, 1874. It was the result of the force being deployed to what is now southern Alberta in ...

by the

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...

passed by the hills on the way to

Fort Macleod Fort Macleod ( ) is a town in southern Alberta, Canada. It was originally named Macleod to distinguish it from the North-West Mounted Police barracks (Fort Macleod, built 1874) it had grown around. The fort was named in honour of the then Commis ...

North-West Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

(in modern-day

Southern Alberta Southern Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. In 2004, the region's population was approximately 272,017. Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site Massold Clay Canyons Yellow Summer Flowers

Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site Massold Clay Canyons Yellow Summer Flowers

In 1886 Thomas McWilliams, a homesteader from the

Moose Jaw River Moose Jaw River is a river in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located in the southern part of the province in a region called the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, which extends throughout three Canadian provinces and fiv ...

area, discovered clay at the north-east corner of the Dirt Hills while out looking for lost cattle and picking

Saskatoon berries ''Amelanchier alnifolia'', the Saskatoon berry, Pacific serviceberry, western serviceberry, western shadbush, or western juneberry, is a shrub with an edible berry-like fruit, native to North America. Description It is a deciduous shrub or sma ...

. Recognising the value of this clay, he travelled to

to the

land titles Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, a ...

office to lay claim to the clay-rick land. He later moved his family to the new homestead. Near the same time, he sought permission from the federal government to mine the refractory clay on his land. This is the first official record of the Claybank clay. By 1914 a brick plant was built and bricks from the area were being sold around Canada and the United States. Now the site is a National Historic Site called

Claybank Brick Plant The Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site, located near Claybank, Saskatchewan at the foot of the Dirt Hills in the RM of Elmsthorpe No. 100, was an operational brick manufacturing plant from 1914 to 1989. Bricks manufactured at the sit ...

. In 2001, the Claybank Brick Plant and Historical Society bought 256 acres of the adjacent Massold Clay Canyons from Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management to create a protected historic and wildlife area.

Avonlea Badlands

The Avonlea Badlands are located about west of the village of Avonlea at the easternmost edge of the Dirt Hills, south-east of Claybank near Highway 339. The total area of the

badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...

is about . Millions of years ago, much of Saskatchewan was covered in an inland sea. Sedimentary deposits from this sea can be seen in the layers in the badlands. The first Avonlea Arrowhead was found at these badlands during an excavation. The badlands are on private property and only open to the public through guided tours.

Communities

The Cactus and the Dirt Hills are sparsely populated. Three rural municiplaities encompass the hills, including Elmsthorpe No. 100, Terrell No. 101, and Baildon No. 131. Communities in the hills include Claybank,

Bayard Bayard may refer to: People * Bayard (given name) *Bayard (surname) *Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard (1473–1524) French knight Places * Bayard, Delaware, an unincorporated community *Bayard (Jacksonville), Florida, a neighborhood *Bayard, ...

, Spring Valley, and

Transportation

The following is a list of highways and airports throughout the Dirt and Cactus Hills: * Highway 36 skirts the western edge of the Dirt and Cactus Hills. * Highway 339 passes by the north-east corner of the Dirt Hills, running by the Avonlea Badlands,

, and Claybank. * Highway 624 runs south from Spring Valley. * Highway 715 runs the length of the Dirt Hills from Highway 36 at

to Claybank and Highway 339. * Spring Valley (North) Airport is about 8 miles north of Spring Valley in the RM of Baildon No. 131 along Highway 715.

References

{{Authority control Hills of Saskatchewan Natural history of Saskatchewan Landforms of Saskatchewan

History

Avonlea Badlands

Communities

Transportation

See also

References