Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Some 16 km (10 mi.) west of Highway 2 North, by the unmade-up Highway 785, lies the area known as Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981. A band of rock some 300 m (984 ft) long in the lush, undulating grassland ends in a steep precipice, and for more than 5000 years the prairie Indians in the course of their organized buffalo hunts used to drive the panic-stricken beasts over the precipice to their death. It was not until the Indians obtained horses and firearms from the white man in the 18th c. that they finally gave up this traditional method of hunting.

The name "Head-Smashed-in Buffalo Jump" originates from a hunting accident in the 18th c. A man watching the hunt from below