Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre

About

Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre is a community-based museum and interpretive centre, founded in 1994, that educates, conserves, protects, and promotes the history, the peoples and the assets of the land forming the Eagle Creek Valley and Coal Mine Ravine located in Herschel, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The centre began in the fall of 1994, after the closure of the local elementary school, which the board of directors bought from the school division for a small sum.

Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre is located northwest of Rosetown in the village of Herschel. It is a community-based project that serves the west central area of Saskatchewan for the educational and preservation purposes of the site and as a community centre. It sits atop the Coalmine ravine and overlooks several fossil beds and a First Nations ceremonial complex designated a Municipal Heritage Site by the province of Saskatchewan. Over the years, several professional archaeology and paleontology excavations have taken place at the centre.

Ancient Echoes is now under the umbrella of the R.M. of Mountain View #318. The centre has three key areas of focus: prehistoric era, aboriginal history, and the ecology of the area, which is native prairie. The area includes aboriginal historical sites including petroglyphs. They have archaeological dig-sites and paleontology excavation sites which includes many marine fossils like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, including the only example of an Dolichorhynchops herschelensis in the world. There are guided hikes through the ravine area to see the different sites and exhibits that contain a natural history display, aboriginal artifacts and a permanent painting collection about the disappearance of the plains bison by Quebec artist, Jo Cooper.

Outside the centre is a life-size statue of a plains grizzly bear created by William Epp that once roamed the prairie before they disappeared in the early 20th century. The centre also pays tribute to the James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk who came to this part of Saskatchewan, from Kinnaird, Scotland, in 1859 on a hunting expedition in search of large game, including the plains grizzly. His diary details his encounter with a bear in the Bad Hills near Herschel.

Ancient Echoes is a popular site for school tours throughout the year, offering custom-designed programs for students of all ages in the areas of Aboriginal history, ecology and archaeology. It also offers summer programs including traditional pottery making, drum making, ecology and paleontology hikes, full-moon hikes, educational and craft days for children. The centre provides programs for school groups and the general public. It accommodates all age levels, interest levels and group sizes. It offers special programs throughout the summer months and a few in the winter months. It a seasonal facility open Tuesdays–Sundays from May to the end of August, and then by request through the winter and spring.

In October 1994, what was then called The Herschel Interpretive Centre was officially established. It was staffed by a dedicated team of volunteers and funded by individual and corporate donations, as well as a small government grant. The centre's mandate is as follows: "Ancient Echoes is a community-based project which interprets, conserves, and promotes the history, the peoples and the assets of the land forming the Eagle Creek Valley and beyond the Coal Mine Ravine in Herschel, Saskatchewan."

Over the years, Ancient Echoes has received many generous donations from local artisans and large companies. These include the contribution of several taxidermy pieces from local taxidermist Lyle Waddington. While preparations were being made to open the centre in 1994, Waddington donated many native bird and mammal species found in the Herschel area. These included a full 900 kilogram buffalo mount, which is displayed at the centre to this day.

Around this same time, Rosetown resident and woodcarver Jack Klemmer visited Ancient Echoes for the first time. Since then, his carvings have been on display at the centre, and the proceeds from their sale have been donated to Ancient Echoes. Also in the late 1990s, the centre received a $5,000 donation from Enbridge Pipelines to purchase shipping carts for the centre's displays and to help pay for the initial print run of renowned Metis artist Jo Cooper's paintings, entitled “The Disappearance and Resurgence of the Buffalo”, which was displayed for the first time at Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre, where it remains today as a permanent exhibit.

In the 1990s, the fossilized remains of three Dolichorhynchops herschelensis were discovered in the Coalmine Ravine. During this excavation paleontologists uncovered the remains of varying marine life: several shark species, numerous fish vertebrate fragments, and a mosasaur (large lizard-like marine animal). Since then, paleontologists have continued and expanded their exploration work in the Coalmine Ravine. New dinosaurs, marine reptiles, plants and other fossils are frequently found in the ravine. The Herschel area is now considered a hot spot for archaeology, paleontology, and native plants and animals.

- 65 million years ago – Herschel was submerged under the Western Interior Seaway, a strip of salt water that flowed from the Arctic down to Texas and over to the Gulf of Mexico. Fossils of many kinds were deposited on the sea bottom.

- 1960 – Petroglyph #1 was discovered by Henry Kosloski, a farmer from nearby Biggar. Despite knowing the importance of the discovery, he kept the petroglyph a secret, to protect it from vandals.

- 1961 – Herschel school (the future home of Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre) was built.

- 1978 – Kosloski revealed his secret concerning the petroglyphs of unknown origin.

- 1988 – The petroglyph site received provincial heritage status and was designated a Municipal Heritage Site in the province of Saskatchewan.

- 1990 – The first fossilized plesiosaur was discovered in the Herschel area. It had a small head, long neck, barrel shaped body, short tail and paddles that propelled it through the water. It was about 40 feet long.

- 1992 – Preliminary mapping and test excavations were undertaken at the petroglyph site. A small, triangular projectile point, a scrapper, a biface fragment, and a few fragments of prehistoric pottery were uncovered.

- 1993 – Further excavations were undertaken at the petroglyph sites. Findings included various objects believed to be offerings. These served to show the continuous use of the site from approximately 600AD to 1900AD.

- 1994 – The first plesiosaur was excavated and moved to the Royal Tyrrel Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. Herschel kindergarten to elementary school were closed due to declining attendance. The Herschel Development Committee negotiated with the Rosetown school division to buy the school and a former teacherage for $1. Further excavations occurred near Monolith 1. The Herschel Interpretive Centre was officially established.

- 1996 – Jo Cooper, a Metis elder from Frontenac, Quebec, came to work on her art exhibition, "The Disappearance and Resurgence of the Plains Buffalo", at Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre. She spent the summer giving tours of the centre and the ravine, and came back often afterward.