FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved

Cover Story by Jack Locke Three weeks ago, when bulldozers started uprooting trees on a controversial piece of land in Calgary’s Paskapoo Slopes area, it became apparent that you can plow a bulldozer across Alberta's oldest known buffalo jump with impunity. The bulldozers were clear-cutting an area east of Canada Olympic Park owned by the Calgary Development Corp. The company wants to develop the site, but the the Paskapoo Slopes Preservation Society wants to protect it – the city has been debating the issue for more than a year. It's not easy to deny the environmental and archeological significance of the Paskapoo Slopes. But perhaps the developer thinks that by contributing $550 to a local alderman's federal election campaign, maybe city council will let you build little boxes on the hillside. That might explain the ominous silence surrounding the discovery of Alberta's oldest buffalo jump, located within Calgary's city limits. The Paskapoo Slopes, the 1,500-acre wooded escarpment which looks down onto the Trans-Canada Highway adjacent to COP, is one huge archeological site and includes a buffalo jump that dates back 8,000 years. And although a 90-metre phallic reminder of Eddie the Eagle protrudes from the centre of this major Canadian archeological find, it remains, at least for the present, largely untouched by development. Previously, the oldest known buffalo jump in Alberta was Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, estimated by radio-carbon dating to be 5,700 years old. Head-Smashed-In is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist attraction in Southern Alberta. So with major tourist potential, you would think that our city fathers would want to preserve the area, right? Well, hold your election contributions. "There might be some urgency for our staff to look at this site," said Jack Brink, head of Alberta's Archeological Survey for the Provincial Museum in Edmonton, three weeks before developer Tracy Doherty, owner of Canada Development Corp., decided to send in the bulldozers. The Archeological Survey is the regulator of historical sites for the province and tries to work with developers to preserve significant archeological sites. Brink says they try to balance heritage preservation and sustainable development. But his department could never predict that a landowner, frustrated by abominable municipal processes – not to mention holding costs – would decide to piss on protocol and fire up the bulldozers at 7 a.m. the day before Easter Sunday. The discovery of 8,000 years of Native presence in the area was documented in a City of Calgary commissioned report authored by Brian Reeves – an expert on the ancient aboriginal presence in Southern Alberta. Although the Reeves' report, completed in October 1998, has not been widely circulated, it concludes that the Paskapoo Slopes is "quite significant." Reeves says the sites were the northern wintering grounds of the Peigan people. The Peigan (who now live on a reserve 230 kilometres south of Calgary in the southwest corner of Alberta) would camp throughout the Paskapoo area, run the bison over the cliffs and then process the meat to provide food for the winter. Reeves says the Peigan inhabited this area largely because of the abundant fresh-water springs that flow from the hill. Critics say those same springs would create havoc for future homeowners if development were allowed to proceed. And while the significance of the study is being downplayed by those who see a pot of gold at the end of the ski jump, the city is currently in the process of developing guidelines for the area's development. Emile Takla and Tim Creelman, two urban planners with the city, are developing Area Structure Plans for the area. "Our job is to involve as many interested parties in the planning process, to develop a process that is transparent," says Creelman. How transparent? When asked whether there were any newsworthy items to be reported regarding the Paskapoo Slopes area, the planners became silent and recommended that this question be referred to the Paskapoo Slopes Preservation Society (PSPS) – a small, volunteer group of citizens who have been trying to preserve the area for at least a decade. "To my knowledge, the native community has never been consulted, involved or represented in any aspect of the city planning process for the Paskapoo Slopes, including the advisory committees and open houses," says Hugh Magill, president of the society. Magill – personally involved in the struggle to preserve the area for seven years – and the PSPS have been raising funds to buy the property and secure the area's preservation. And while a few million dollars short, members of the PSPS have spent tireless hours attending meetings, lobbying, talking with landowners and enduring open house after open house. When news of the recent desecration screamed across the valley, Magill and crew became ever more determined to save this one-of-a-kind landmark. Reeves' study tells how bison bones were found beneath a layer of volcanic ash, known as Mazama Ash, laid down when the mountain now called Crater Lake in Oregon erupted 6,800 years ago. Reeves says the archeological remnants found below this layer give a good indication of the age. "The Reeves report clearly shows the significance of nearly 8,000 years of the native history, that was evidenced in the examination and test digs on the Paskapoo Slopes. The Slopes are a historical and environmental resource which has far more value to the future of our city in its natural state, than as an upscale housing development," concludes Magill. As Calgarians approach another millennium, it will be interesting to see whether the city and provincial governments will allow bulldozers to again carve through this injured urban treasure.

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