Wood Mountain Regional Park is a conservation and recreation area in its natural state set aside as a

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distri ...

in south-western 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 Nor ...

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 ...

. The park is set in the semi-arid

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 un ...

in an upland area called

Wood Mountain Hills Wood Mountain Hills are a hilly plateau in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The hills are located in the southern part of the province and are part of the Missouri Coteau, which is part of the Laurentian Divide between the watersheds ...

. It is in the

Rural Municipality of Old Post No. 43 The Rural Municipality of Old Post No. 43 (Canada 2016 Census, 2016 population: ) is a List of rural municipalities in Saskatchewan, rural municipality (RM) in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan within Di ...

, south of the village of Wood Mountain along Highway 18. Adjacent to the southern boundary of Wood Mountain Regional Park is Wood Mountain Creek and

Wood Mountain Post Provincial Park Wood Mountain Post Provincial Park is a 5.48-hectare historical provincial park in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The site was designated an historic site in the 1960s and became a provincial park in 1986. Originally, it was the locat ...

. Immediately to the west is Wood Mountain

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." In ...

and to the east is the Wood Mountain Game Preserve (). Amenities and attractions within the park include the Rodeo Ranch Museum, Wood Mountain Stampede, Sitting Bull Monument, ball diamonds, campsites, concessions, swimming pool, and hiking and bicycling trails. This is a local park administered by local funding.

History

In 1874, the Boundary Commission, which was charged with surveying the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: ...

, set up a depot on Wood Mountain Creek at the current location of Wood Mountain Regional Park. Later that year, 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 Territo ...

(NWMP) on their

March West The March West was the initial journey of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) to the 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 response to the C ...

to deal with the

Cypress Hills Massacre The Cypress Hills MassacreThe Cypress Hills Massacre
at

First Nations, patrol the border with the United States, and to police

whisky Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ca ...

traders,

horse thieves The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

, and cattle rustlers. In 1876, Chief

Sitting Bull Sitting Bull ( lkt, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock ...

led his 5,000-strong Lakota Sioux tribe away from the Little Bighorn River into the Wood Mountain Hills in Canada after defeating Custer at the

Battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, No ...

. The Canadian government was concerned that the Sioux would cause problems, and charged James Walsh of the NWMP with maintaining control of what amounted to Canada's first attempted peace keeping mission. Walsh succeeded, as he and Sitting Bull became close friends over the years. In the neighbouring provincial park, there are two reconstructed buildings with artefacts that tell the story of Walsh and Sitting Bull. Chief Sitting Bull and some of his people returned to the United States after five years while most stayed in the Wood Mountain area. In 1910, they were given their own

and many of their descendants remain in the area to this day. The North-West Mounted Police closed Wood Mountain Post in 1883. Then, with the out-break of the

North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a Resistance movement, resistance by the Métis people (Canada), Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Natio ...

, it was re-opened in 1885. Two years later, the dilapidated buildings were abandoned and new buildings were constructed to the south-east, across Wood Mountain Creek (which is a tributary of

Wood River Wood River may refer to: Rivers In Canada * Wood River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Columbia River via Kinbasket Lake * Wood River (Saskatchewan), a river in south-west Saskatchewan In Ireland * Wood River (County Clare), Kilru ...

via Lynthorpe Creek) and in the current

. The post operated at that location until it was permanently closed in 1918.

Attractions and amenities

Wood Mountain Regional Park is set in rolling hills and ranchland. There are several trails throughout the park, including one that leads to the provincial park. There is a heated swimming pool, a campground, museum, Bible camp, and Canada's longest running rodeo. A monument to Chief Sitting Bull sits atop a hill overlooking the regional park, behind the museum.

Rodeo Ranch Museum

The Rodeo Ranch Museum features exhibits about the

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaqu ...

s and ranchers who settled the area in the 1880s. Exhibits include photographs, pioneer, rodeo and Western artefacts. The information centre for the East Block of

Grasslands National Park Grasslands National Park (French: ') is a Canadian national park located near the village of Val Marie, Saskatchewan, and one of 44 national parks and park reserves in Canada's national park system (though one of only two in Saskatchewan it ...

is located in the museum.

Wood Mountain Stampede

In 1890, the Wood Mountain Stampede was established by the

to promote sports and to celebrate the July 1

Dominion Day Dominion Day was a day commemorating the granting of certain countries Dominion status — that is, "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external ...

holiday. It became an annual event held every second weekend in July and is Canada's longest-running annual

rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaq ...

References

External links