Submitted by David Munro
The Friends of St. Victor Petroglyphs Cooperative Ltd., started some 25 years ago, was established with the goals of preserving, protecting and promoting the educational use of this rare site of 300+ ancient rock carvings on the Wood Mountain Upland portion of the Missouri Coteau, just south of the hamlet of St. Victor, Saskatchewan.
Limited funds had ever been allocated to looking after the needs of the park and it was under the direction of the management of Cypress Hills Provincial Park for many years. That meant there were few visits and little upgrades done each year with no plan of action developed as to what to do here to develop the full educational potential of the site.
Before the Friends of the Petroglyphs were formed Tim Jones, the director of the Saskatchewan Archaeological Society, came down from Saskatoon to put on special tours of the petroglyphs. The Archaeological Society also helped fund a couple of small archaeological digs within the park with a few interested people from the area taking part in the two day events.
The Friends were and are still a group of people trying to protect this site the best we can. We have been asked many times why the Friends are so concerned about doing this work when it is a Provincial Park and it is their responsibility.
The Friends saw an opportunity to work towards a better way to make use of this site than just letting it be neglected and ruined totally due to the lack of interest by the Government of the day. The biggest problem the site still faces, in our opinion, is that Saskatchewan folks, from the government on down, have had little experience in recognizing the potential for developing such heritage sites for both tourism and educational growth.
Over the years the Friends and the aboriginal community have advocated for active, effective educational programming to be carried out by the province, but little of this has happened. One government representative even said the reason for not investing money in the site is that it is too far out of the way of the main flow of tourist traffic.
The Friends have felt that they have needed to seize the initiative, and have even commissioned well-thought-out protection and educational strategic plans, carried out by professional consultants, helped with funds from the Province and Cool Springs Development of Coronach.
Other projects the Friends have undertaken: funds were obtained for the printing of the book “St. Victor Petroglyphs: The Place of the Living Stone” by Tim and Louise Jones.
The Friends removed the badly damaged original staircase after a major wind storm and used much of the material in the Log building they obtained from the Moose Jaw Wild Animal Park, which now serves as the small interpretative centre for the rock art site, in St. Victor.
After the major collapse of a section of the cliff in 2001, the Friends pressed for three years to get a fence to protect the visitors who even today still think it is safe to be below the cliff. (It is not!) The first fence was inadequate and we again pressed for a better fence. This may not be the best fence but it has helped and there are plans to rework part of the fence to improve the viewing of the glyphs.
The Friends provide educational opportunities to the public in the form of displays in their interpretative centre, guided tours, and events. The latest improvement will be the installation of a new Park sign at the gate, by the Parks department. After four years of asking, it is now ordered and will be installed.
There is more work to be done to preserve endangered carvings, which we will continue to press for, and one of our ultimate goals is to have a world-class site visitor/interpretation centre established here.
Thanks to all who have worked with us and helped to get these improvements over the past few years — we are very grateful for your assistance, and we will continue to be strong advocates for making the site and its ancient art treasure treated with the respect it deserves so that future generations will still be able to enjoy this wonderful outdoor art gallery.
