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Story of Region and Its People
Rural Municipality
The Municipal District of Bighorn Number 8, previously Improvement District Number 8, was created in January of 1988. The municipal district (M.D.) is located east of Banff National Park,Hamlets
The municipal district is a rural municipality that covers approximately 2700 square- Benchlands
- Dead Flats
- Exshaw
- Harvie Heights
- Lac des Arcs
Land Use
The land encompassed by the municipal district has various uses such as recreational, agricultural, forestry and ranching. There are also several industrial sites within the municipal district that take advantage of the natural resources in the area, including oil and gas, hydropower, cement production and mineral extraction of magnesium and lime.Pre-Contact Occupation of the Bow Valley & the Mountain Stoney
The Bow Valley area was occupied for hundreds of years before Europeans discovered the New World. Pictographs in the Bow Valley are estimated to be over a thousand years old, and the painted images predate the aboriginal groups that currently call the region home. (1) These images include bison, human figures, moose, deer, elk, and handprints, some of which are located higher than a human could reach unassisted and would have required the use of scaffolding or ladders to place on the cliff. (2)The people living in the Bow Valley at the time of contact were the Assiniboia, or Mountain Stoneys, whose language, Nakoda, is closely related to the Sioux in the United States.(3,4) The Assiniboia immigrated to the area from the southern United States around 1640
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References
1 Rob Alexander and Dene Cooper, Exshaw: Heart of the Valley, Manitoba: Exshaw Historical Society, 2005, page 28.2 Ibid.
3 Alberta Online Encyclopedia, Voices:
4 Ibid., 30.
5 Ibid., 30
6 Ibid., 30 31.
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Administration
Physical Address
2 Heart Mountain Drive
Exshaw, AB T0L 2C0
Phone: 403-673-3611Fax: 403-673-3895
Hours
Monday - Friday
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Calgary Direct
403-233-7678