Big Knife Provincial Park

Big Knife Provincial Park in central Alberta stands at the meeting of Big Knife Creek and the Battle River in a landscape of badlands, aspen forest, and grassland. Its name preserves a local story of a fatal nineteenth-century fight between a Cree man called Big Man and a Blackfoot warrior named Knife, and the name appeared on regional maps by 1874 before being temporarily replaced and later restored. The valley also had a rough frontier past tied to settlers, cattle rustling, and moonshining. Established in 1962 and fully opened in 1972, the park is valued for recreation and for its unusually diverse wildlife, insects, and plant communities.

Alberta · Canada