Fort Macleod, Alberta
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
18 km North & West of Fort Macleod, Alberta

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1. Kill Site: While now at a height of 10 meters, dense bone deposits 12 meters deep below the cliff would indicate that the drop was more than double this 6000 years ago when buffalo jumping began. Today marmots, cliff swallows, gophers, weasels and porcupines make their home in the cliff area. 2. Calderwood Buffalo Jump: While Head-Smashed-In was the primary kill site, the Calderwood Jump was used for small buffalo herds when conditions were right. Research suggests it was used at least 5 times in the past 2500 years. 3. Vision Quest: A sacred place where a young man went alone to acquire power from the spirit world. This journey was part of the initiation process to manhood. After fasting four days, the youth would have powerful visions. Their meanings were later explained to him by a Spiritual Leader. This site is closed to the public. The hunt began when several young men - the buffalo runners - were sent out to locate the herds and to manipulate the animals into the lines of rock cairns called "drive lanes'. These lanes consist OE small piles of rocks spaced about five to ten meters apart and stretching for many kilometers to the west of the cliff. In the past each rock pile would have been made larger by adding brush, earth and dung. These perishable materials have long since rotted away. Like a funnel, the lanes converge to a narrow opening located directly over the highest part of the cliff. If properly executed, a successful drive probably killed several hundred animals. But failures also occurred, and native hunters occasionally lost their lives attempting these risky drives. Below the cliff are dozens of layers of buffalo bones mixed with artifacts, dirt and rock rubble representing thousands of years of use of this jump. In some places the deposits are more than 10 meters deep. Radiocarbon dating of bone from the oldest deepest layers reveals that the jump was used to km buffalo more than 5,600 years ago. At that time the drop from the cliff would have been much higher and more fatal. The jump may have been used hundreds of times up until he middle of the last century. As soil, rock and artifacts built up over time the drop would have been shorter and less fatal. The thousands of arrowheads found a the upper layers attests to the need to kill crippled animals.

(Click here for printable picture file.)


(Click here for printable picture file.)

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