The hopes and dreams of so many homesteaders lay now in abandonment and ruin within the Palliser Triangle region of Southern Saskatchewan.
Officially listed as grasslands, the Palliser Triangle is a semi-desert area of over a million acres in the shape of a triangle, the base located along the 49th parallel between Canada and the US with the point reaching the 52nd parallel in Alberta. Not limited to south-eastern Alberta and south-western Saskatchewan, this area is actually the northern extension of the arid central desert of the USA. The Palliser Triangle contains Canada's only active sand dunes, which covers over 1,900 square kilometers and are accessible through private lands near the town of Scepter.
Determined to be unsuitable for agriculture because of its unfavourable climate when first explored and mapped by John Palliser, the leader of the 1857–1859 survey expedition to Canada's west, the decision to open these lands to settlement was made a few years later by John Macoun, a government official, who successfully sold the idea that it would be good for growing wheat, and as such the area was then colourfully advertised out as prime land to lure immigrant farmers.
At first ranched by American cattlemen, the area was subsequently ‘homesteaded’ and in the early 1900’s it began to be settled and farmed. A combination of dry conditions and poor agricultural practices turned the area into a giant ‘Dust Bowl’ in the 1930s, contributing significantly to the Great Depression in Canada. A series of rainy years later helped to reestablish the area as an important farming region, but overall farming has always been precarious in the Palliser Triangle, and even to this day the area's remaining farmers often receive large government subsidies to deal with drought conditions.
People are usually surprized to hear that Chief Sitting Bull and members of his Sioux band fled into southern Saskatchewan after the infamous battle of Little Big Horn (Custer’s Last Stand). Sitting Bull refused to surrender to the US Army at the time and in May 1877 led his band across the border into this area of Saskatchewan. He remained in exile there for many years near Wood Mountain, refusing a pardon and the chance to return to the US. Hunger and cold eventually forced Sitting Bull and his family, along with nearly 200 other Sioux in his band, to return to the United States, and on July 19, 1881 they surrender their rifles.
I've photographed in the Palliser Triangle portion of Southern Saskatchewan over the past 35 years. Ever since my first introduction to the area I felt a deep connection to the hopes and dreams that are still palpable within the old houses and barns that occasionally dot the landscape.
The original homesteads have almost all disappeared over the past 35 years, today only a few remain, and of those less remain intact. When I first explored the area a number of the houses still had groceries on the shelves in the kitchens, beds still made in the humble bedrooms, beds with clothing laid out on them in some decision making process at the time of what to take and what to leave behind.
Today little remains of the original homesteads, and what does has been mostly ‘picked’ by treasure hunters and collectors. When I was first introduced to the area I was fortunate enough to come across a set of RM Maps (Rural Municipal Maps) which I purchased, these maps detailed not only the names of the people who settled the various quarter sections, but as well they pinpointed approximately where on the settled quarters the homestead houses were located. Combined with modern GPS technology these maps are invaluable today in locating what remains, because although the main roads still exist, many of the smaller roads are all but overgrown and gone today, leaving little or no easy access into what remains of the original homesteads, graveyards and schools.
Each time I head back into the Palliser Triangle of Southern Saskatchewan to continue this project I am always saddened at the changes I encounter. Countless homesteads that I visited earlier in the past 35 years have since completely disappeared, and less-and-less am I able to find even the more remote homesteads shown on my old RM Maps. Thankfully I started this project when I did, because today little remains, except perhaps a few dead Caragana trees, once surrounding houses and tended as breaks against the relentless winds. Even the iconic grain elevators that once dotted the landscape at regular intervals are being systematically torn down now as the railway tracks are being pulled up and their gravel beds removed.
The Palliser Triangle, once home to countless European and American homesteaders seeking a new and prosperous life in Canada, is slowly returning to the prairie grasslands it once was over a century ago. - Brian Martin
Technical Information:
Film - The bulk of my Palliser Triangle work has been captured on Kodachrome film, both 35mm for projection purposes (ISO 25 until its discontinuance in 2002 with ISO 64 utilized afterwards) , and medium format 120 film in 645 format for printing and publishing requirements (ISO 64, with Agfachrome 50 substituted after 120 Kodachrome 64 was discontinued in 1996). Since the final demise of Kodachrome in 2010 both Fujichrome Provia 100F and Kodak Ektachrome E100G films have been substituted, again in both 35mm and medium format sizes. A small sampling of digital images, taken on a Canon G1 digital camera as reference images for email and low resolution website use, are shown to the left in the gallery.
Equipment - Cullmann and Linhoff tripods ... Canon EF & F-1 FD-series bodies with Canon FD20-35mm f3.5L, FD 28-85mm f4, 100mm f4 macro, FD80-200mm f4L and FD50-300mm f4.5L lenses ... Pentax 645 bodies with Pentax 35mm, 45mm, 55mm, 120mm, 200mm, 45-80mm and 80-160mm lenses ... Horizont 35mm 120-degree swing-lens panorama camera ... Canon G1 digital camera (used for reference images and organizational file system utilized in on-site laptop) ... Sekonic and Gossen light meters.
Mapping - Rural Municipal Maps, Microsoft GPS Streets & Trips installed in a Lenovo ThinkTank laptop.
