THINGS TO DO IN THE MILK RIVER BASIN
WRITING ON STONE PROVINCIAL PARK
Come and explore the most extensive collection of native pictographs and petroglyphs found in North America. Writing On Stone Provincial Park (est. 1957) (elev. 1050 m, 3445 ft) is also a unique ecological area with the Sweetgrass Hills (West Bute (2138 m, 6983 ft), Gold Bute, and east Bute (USA)) rising up above the mixed grass prairie. This region is where the Cordilleran and Laurentide Ice Sheets met and near the south end of both ice sheets. It is also thought that the summit of West Bute rose above the ice sheets and provided a glacial refugia for plant and wildlife which was important for a diversity of species and the successional development of the prairies as the ice sheets retreated starting 10,000 years ago. This would strongly influence vegetation and wildlife currently found at Writing On Stone.
THE MILK RIVER
The milk river, named for its milky colour by Lewis and Clark back in 1805, flows north out of Montana into southern Alberta and then back into Montana again and into the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Short or longer sections of the milk river a readily accessible in the area.
Devil's Coulee Dinosaur & Heritage Museum
Devil's Coulee Dinosaur & Heritage Museum is operated by the Devil's Coulee Cooperating Society to bring to life the story of the dinosaur discovery made in Warner, Alberta in 1987. A local girl, Wendy Sloboda, was hiking through the coulees of the Milk River Ridge, when she came across what she believed to be dinosaur eggs shells. The finding was confirmed by Dr. Len Hills at the University of Calgary and Dr. Phillip Currie at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.
HEAD SMASHED-IN BUFFALO JUMP
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site that preserves and interprets over 6,000 years of Plains Buffalo culture. Through vast landscapes, exhibits, and diverse programming, learn about the cultural significance of this cliff to the Plains People.