Head Smashed In

written by Johno

After a pleasant day exploring in Seattle, we boarded the light rail to return to SEATAC , to catch our bus to Kent where our RV was parked when, from over our shoulder, came a burly voice enquiring, “where are you from?” “Australia” we replied.

So into a conversation with our fellow passengers we plunged. “Where’ve you been? What’s your plan next? Where are you going? Do you like our country? he asked.  “Heading to Canada to the Rockies,” we said.

That’s when the holiday planner in him took over… You must do this, or see this, but in the middle of the diatribe he said, “You must go to ”Heasmashinbuffalojump”. I said, “what !!!”  He repeated it  “Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump -  it’s a really cool place.” He spoke really fast and my head couldn’t absorb it. One of those “WHAT THE” moments of our trip and that was the end of conversation.  We left for the Rockies next day.

A couple of weeks later, after leaving Banff, we had planned to stop at Calgary but we discovered that Blues Festival we were hoping to catch was a week later than we thought. Wendy and I decided we didn’t care to hang around in just another big city, so onward we went, aiming to arrive in Fort McLeod late that night.

After driving for hours and getting quite tired a road sign popped up “Smashed In Head Buffalo Jump”---15k to the right at the next intersection, bringing the aforementioned conversation back to our memory.

Near Fort McLeod

To our surprise, at the intersection we found a Truck Weigh Scale and a parking lot for semi-trailers, an ideal place to boondock. So we took up this opportunity and snuggled Freddie between a couple of semi’s and bunkered down for the night. Early next morning we quietly left our rest stop and headed the 15k to “Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump” still not knowing anything about it apart that “it’s really cool”. Arriving much too early for opening time, we had breakfast in the carpark and waited, watching the staff arriving and other tourists. At opening time we filed into the Interpretive Centre and paid the $10 per person entry fee only to completely blown away by whole presentation of the place. It was unexpected, but fun and educational, with excellent quality exhibits, and

1. World Heritage Listed site
2. Architecturally Awarded Design of the complex
3. Displays and Films to enthrall

The Site of the Buffalo Jump

Buffalo jumps are an integral part of the practices of the North American native people and have been for over 10,000 years. Due to their excellent understanding of the land and the buffalo behavior, groups of native hunters would kill them by driving them over a cliff. The hunts required a huge amount of planning, organisation and skill to lure the buffalo from the plains and into cleverly built lanes (relying on perspective and not reality by creating a sense that there are thousands of people forcing them into the path) and then over the cliffs. The reason this jump is a world heritage site is because there is evidence that goes back over 6,000 years.

buffalo skulls - evidence that it really happened

We just wandered around for a couple of hours mind-boggled at the design, six levels of theatres, a very well resourced museum, cafeteria, displays and shop. As we left Wendy commented that Ryan could design her a house like that but she would have difficulty finding a suitable block of land. 

So, thanks again to that guy on the light-rail back in Seattle who was keen for us to see the best of his country, we had another enjoyable and fulfilling experience.

 If you are really interested, go to www.head-smashed-in.com

Smashed In Head

award winning building