Wood Mountain Post Provincial Park is a 5.48-hectare historical

provincial park Ischigualasto Provincial Park A provincial park (or territorial park) is a park administered by one of the provinces of a country, as opposed to a national park. They are similar to state parks in other countries. They are typically open to the ...

in 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 ...

. The site was designated an

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

in the 1960s and became a

in 1986. Originally, it was the location of a

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 ...

(NWMP) post that operated from 1887 to 1918. The post was established to develop relations with local Indians, patrol 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: Can ...

, and to perform general policing duties. Wood Mountain Post Provincial Park is located in the RM of Old Post No. 43 along Highway 18, about south of the village of Wood Mountain and north of the Canada–United States border. It is in the

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 of ...

, adjacent to 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

Wood Mountain Regional Park Wood Mountain Regional Park is a conservation and recreation area in its natural state set aside as a regional park in south-western region of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The park is set in the semi-arid Palliser's Triangle in an u ...

. The provincial park has a picnic area and the neighbouring regional park has a campground.

History

In 1874, the North-West Mounted Police marched west to deal with the Cypress Hills Massacre. Along the route was a depot in the Wood Mountain Hills that was used by the

Boundary Commission A boundary commission is a legal entity that determines borders of nations, states, constituencies. Notable boundary commissions have included: * Afghan Boundary Commission, an Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission, of 1885 and 1893, delineated the no ...

when the Canada–United States border was surveyed. The NWMP used that depot intermittently from 1874 until 1887 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 c ...

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 y ...

, 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 I ...

and 5,000 members of the Lakota Sioux took refuge at the post after 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, Nor ...

in the

Montana Territory The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted as the 41st state in the Union as the state of Montana. Original boundaries T ...

of the United States. They remained in the area for five years before Chief Sitting Bull and many of them returned to the US. The First Nations that remained in Saskatchewan make up the present-day

Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation The Wood Mountain First Nation ( lkt, Tatanka Iyutaka Lakota Oyate, also spelt as ''Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake Lakȟóta Oyáte'') is a Lakota First Nations band government in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Led across the border by Sitting Bull, they ...

. Wood Mountain Post was closed in 1883 and then re-opened in 1885 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 by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of S ...

. Two years later, the dilapidated buildings were abandoned and new buildings were constructed to the south-east, across Wood Mountain Creek. This new site is the location of the current provincial park and the original site is the location of Wood Mountain Regional Park. Wood Mountain Post closed for the final time in 1918.

Reconstruction and historical site

In the 1960s, the Wood Mountain Post site was designated an historical site of Canada. Two buildings – a barracks and a kitchen / storehouse – were reconstructed on their original locations and the foundations of other former buildings were outlined. A large number of artefacts have been recovered as well as the locations of cellars and trails. The artefacts and reconstructed buildings tell the story of Major James Walsh of the NWMP and his negotiations with Chief Sitting Bull.

References

{{Authority control Provincial parks of Saskatchewan National Historic Sites in Saskatchewan Sitting Bull North-West Mounted Police Old Post No. 43, Saskatchewan Division No. 3, Saskatchewan

History

Reconstruction and historical site

See also

References