roadside Rock of Ages by Peter Worden
It’s just a rock, but this lichen- painted, ashen chunk of quartzite plopped on the southern Alberta prai- rie has travelled farther than most rocks. Noticeably different than the gold-hued sandstone that surrounds it, the Big Rock is the largest remnant of the Foothills Erratics Train, a scat- tering of glacier-borne rubble carried down from a Jasper mountain peak 18,000 years ago. And, at 16,500 tonnes, it is indeed a big rock. The Blackfoot people called it
okatok, meaning (what else) “big rock.” In the late 1800s, ethnographer George Bird Grinnell recorded a Black- foot legend that was likely about the site: A rock chased after Napi, the Trickster, after Napi broke a promise.
Bats came to Napi’s rescue, diving at the rock and cracking it in two. This explains, or so the story goes, why the Big Rock lies aslant, fractured into two nine-metre-tall halves — and why bats have squished faces. Several other erratics lie near
Airdrie and Glenwoodville, but the Big Rock is the largest. Situated a stone’s throw southwest of the eponymous town of Okotoks, the rock is a designated Provincial His- toric Resource. It is also the name- sake of Calgary’s Big Rock Brewery and a popular tourist attraction. After enduring incredible time and distance, the rock now stays put and people, fascinated by its unique jour- ney and immensity, travel to it.
70 WESTWORLD >> JUNE 2011
Travel Alberta
