The Okotoks Erratic has travelled a long ways and has a long history. Photo from the Government of Alberta website
There is a large geological landmark in Southern Alberta that holds spiritual significance to the Blackfoot people.
But, the landmark was not originally from the area, as it travelled from Jasper National Park.
Just west of the Town of Okotoks sits a large rock visible from Highway 7, known as the Okotoks Erratic.
This is a glacial erratic that weighs 16,5000-tonnes (18,200-ton) and was transported from its mountainous home to its current location.
It was able to do so, thanks to a rockslide and a glacial sheet of ice that carried the erratic from Jasper National Park to its current location south of Calgary.
The Okotoks Erratic was originally part of a mountain formation in what is now known as Jasper National Park, and during the last ice age, which occurred roughly 30,000 years ago, a large rockslide caused debris to crash onto the surface of a glacier that occupied the present-day Athabasca River Valley.
The debris, which included the Erratic, was then carried south, out of the mountains and into the prairies, on the glacier.
Eventually, as the ice melted and the glacier retreated to the mountains, the rocky debris and the Erratic were deposited across the prairies.
Despite being moved hundreds of kilometres, the Okotoks Erratic is the largest glacial erratic in Canada, and one of the largest in North America.
Blackfoot historian and artist, Jared Tailfeathers, tells us more.
According to Tailfeathers, the largest erratic in Calgary is in the Panorama Hills community, and could be the largest one next to the Okotoks Erratic.
Not only does the word erratic mean a rock or boulder that differs from the surrounding rocks, the word Okotoks (Okatok) is a Blackfoot word that also means rock.
Big glacial erratics have played an important role in the history North America, and the Okotoks Erratic is no different.
Tailfeather adds that the Okotoks Erratic holds a significant role for the Blackfoot people in the area.
The Okotoks Erratic is split in the middle of it, and a Blackfoot story describes how that split occurred, thanks to a trickster known as Napi.
Tailfeathers tells us a bit about Napi.
Tailfeathers adds that if that story about Napi is correct, his story involving the Okotoks Erratic would make more sense.
They finally got to where the rock currently sits, and at this point in the story, Tailfeathers says the story varies.
Highway 7, which passes by the Okotoks Erratic, was created where there used to be a main trail that was used for thousands of years and brought people out past the Erratic and to the Sheep River pass.
On top of the Okotoks Erratic being a landmark, the rock also has been adorned with petroglyphs.
According to Tailfeathers, there are almost a dozen paintings on the Erratic.
Tailfeathers adds that these petroglyphs are found where the sun is, as well as in the crevasses of the rock.
Traditionally, Blackfoot people didn’t want to leave anything permanent on the land to help keep the land renewable and sustainable.
The Okotoks Erratic currently has a small fence around it, and Tailfeathers encourages people to not touch the rock, as it helps to tell the history of the area and the Blackfoot people.
Another interesting fact that Tailfeathers mentioned was that a lot of the erratics associated with the Okotoks Erratic are shaped like buffalo.
In 1978, the Government of Alberta designated the Okotoks Erratic as a Provincial Historic Resource, which helps to protect its geological and cultural importance.
Then, in 2013 and 2016, the Government of Alberta partnered with CyArk and University of Calgary to capture high resolution 3D scans of the Erratic for research purposes.
The Okotoks Erratic is made of light grey, pink, and purplish quartzite, measures 9-metres tall, 41-metres long, and 18-metres wide.
To learn more about the Erratic and the directions on how to find it, click here.
Comments