Attempts underway to protect significant landmark in Alberta's ancient history
The quartzite boulder spent untold millennia riding a massive glacier all the way from Jaspers Tonquin Valley to its eventual resting place next to Nose Creek.
That was between 15 and 20,000 years ago. Sometime later, the first people walked past - and from time immemorial the Beddington erratic and dozens of others like it - became significant landmarks across the landscape.
It's not clear just when, but the first people began to leave their mark - paintings telling stories or marking events, people or nearby resources.
"All of these sacred places were all marked - even the medicine wheels and the way they point - they point to a direction where something else happened," says Grant Many Heads, an educator at Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park on Siksika.
Many Heads notes the site was just literal steps from what's now called the Old North Trail, a route that shadowed the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Mexico. It was a major trade and travel route, a long line that connected the northern people of the boreal forest, through the Great Plains, to the canyon and desert country to the south.
"It's not just records - they are sacred," Many Heads says. "It's kinda sad that people come to these places and damage them."
GRAFFITI
That's what has happened to the substantial boulder over the years - pictures from the 1943 Alberta Geology Report show the boulder intact. As of 2000, a report on protection of similar erratics noted seven with known pictographs, including the Beddington site, located a few hundred metres north of Country Hills Boulevard and a similar distance west of Deerfoot Trail.
At the time there was no mention of graffiti, but notes from the archaeological site identified as EgPm-177 reads "The pictographs are faded and there is no record of their precise location or form."
Today the rock is covered in countless layers of paint, with fresh cans on the ground as of April 22, 2024. Four and a half metres tall and roughly 7.3 metres long and wide, little of the actual rock is visible.
Today the rock is covered in countless layers of paint, with fresh cans laying on the ground as of April 22, 2024. Four and a half metres tall and roughly 7.3 metres long and wide, little of the actual rock is visible.
PRESERVATION
Nose Creek Preservation Society founder Andrew Yule says more needs to be done to preserve the erratic and give it a place of respect and context in Calgary's modern landscape.
"Finland has laws to protect natural monuments like glacial erratics and we don’t really have protections," Yule says. "It really takes efforts from all levels of government to make sure that significant natural monuments [. . .] like this one are protected."
The city owns the land immediately to the south - an unofficial park that has a bridge and a gravel trail, but no proper access point. The erratic itself sits just roughly 60 metres onto private land to the north.
The city says there is little if anything it can do.
Yule said his group have tried to identify the landowner to see if they can negotiate a plan for the ancient site, but haven't been successful.
"We have teams of people that are interested in helping restore it so that we can get rid of the graffiti and place actual historic markers that can tell the story so that it’s not just another rock," Yule said.
The petroglyphs were mostly painted using a naturally occurring red clay called ochre, mixed with animal fat. It has lasted at least 1,500 years in some North American sites, but does deteriorate over time and with repeated touching. The presence of even the lightest coat of spray paint can cause irreparable harm.
Yule says the valley is the final resting place of countless bison, butchered and packaged to feed the people who followed the northern herds over vast areas for thousands of years.
Nose Creek Preservation Society founder Andrew Yule says more needs to be done to preserve the erratic and give it a place of respect and context in Calgary's modern landscape.
There is still a depression around the Beddington erratic, pounded out by the feet of thegreat bison herds rubbing their winter coats.
Today that moat is the only tangible evidence left of the countless souls that passed this way since the great glaciers melted away and life in Alberta began.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW AI helping to identify undiagnosed genetic disorders in children
Researchers have developed the world's first algorithm powered by artificial intelligence to identify children with undiagnosed rare genetic disorders.
Healthy diets with only 10% ultraprocessed foods may raise risk of cognitive decline, stroke
Eating more ultraprocessed foods is linked to a higher risk of cognitive decline and stroke, even if a person is trying to adhere to a Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet or the MIND diet, a new study found.
Charlie Colin, founding member of the pop-rock band Train, dies at 58
Charlie Colin, bassist and founding member of the American pop-rock band Train, best known for their early-aughts hits like 'Drops of Jupiter' and 'Meet Virginia,' has died. He was 58.
Toronto awarded WNBA's first franchise outside U.S., with expansion team set to begin play in 2026
Toronto has been awarded the WNBA's first franchise outside the United States, with the expansion team set to begin play in 2026.
How does this end? With Hamas holding firm and fighting back in Gaza, Israel faces only bad options
Diminished but not deterred, Hamas is still putting up a fight after seven brutal months of war with Israel, regrouping in some of the hardest-hit areas in northern Gaza and resuming rocket attacks into nearby Israeli communities.
'We'll need all hands on deck': Details emerge after deadly boat crash near Kingston, Ont.
Police say they have wrapped up their on-scene investigation into a deadly boat crash in eastern Ontario as details of the incident begin to emerge.
WestJet planning new fare category for travellers willing to forgo carry-on bag
WestJet Airlines plans to launch a new cheaper fare category that would be available to travellers willing to fly without a carry-on bag.
With 2M seniors signed up and 10K providers, Holland defends dental plan rollout
Canada's dental care plan is 'getting there' Health Minister Mark Holland said Wednesday defending the program's rollout that's now seen two million seniors sign up, but just 10,000 oral health providers enrolled to treat them.
Majority of Canadians plan to stay close to home on this year's summer vacation, survey finds
A new survey found a majority of Canadian respondents plan to stay within the country on their next trip amidst high costs of living.