Some think of Saskatchewan
as an unending plain of wheat fields interrupted by grain elevators.
The design chosen for this stamp issue will help dispel that myth.
It depicts the Big Muddy, a rough landscape of rugged hills and
craggy buttes 100 miles south of Regina, sparsely covered with sage,
cactus and a gray-leafed bush known as wolf willow.
Nineteen kilometres south of Bengough, on Highway 34, a
60-metre high outcrop of compressed clay rises abruptly from the
prairie. Castle Butte's solitary mass heralds the Big Muddy
Badlands, a 3.2-kilometre wide valley of eroded earth and sandstone
along Big Muddy Creek.
For centuries, this spectacular and solitary expanse has attracted
seekers of isolation, from the native peoples of the region to outlaws
in need of concealment. In fact, Highway 36 is part of the
"Outlaw Trail" blazed by the infamous Butch Cassidy, while Highway
13 the "Red Coat Trail" honours the role played by
the North-West Mounted Police in the settlement of the west. Together
with Highway 34, these roads encircle the Big Muddy Badlands.
Today, Bengough recalls the early years with its annual summer
fair, Wild West Days and the Big Muddy Stampede, a Canadian
Professional Rodeo Association sanctioned event. The adobe huts are
gone; so are the outlaws, but this area remains timeless.
Virtual Saskatchewan
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Tourism Saskatchewan
