Ancestors Speak - Big Rock, Alberta

"Big Rock In The Sun"  Photo by Judith Hirst-Joyeux, July 2008

This picture is of a "glacial erratic" and it is located south of Calgary, Alberta, five miles west of Highway 2A, on Highway 7.  This chunk of rock is the only huge rock of its kind in the area.  It is made up of quartzite, which is a very hard and brittle.  The rock was an early cowboy that rode a glacier from the Jasper area of the Rocky Mountains 250 miles south to the Okotoks area about twelve thousand years ago.

The Blackfoot tell the story differently.  The big rock came to be close to Okotoks because of an incident between Napi, the trickster God, and the rock.  Napi needed to rest, and decided to sit down on the comfortable stone in the mountains.  The stone was very hot so Napi threw his cloak over it.  When his rest was done, Napi left his cloak to cover and protect the rock.  Part way down the mountain, however, rain began pouring down on Napi.  He raced back up to the rock to retrieve his cloak.  The rock wished to keep his cloak, and refused to hand it over.  So, Napi grabbed the cloak and ran. 

He heard sounds of thunder behind him.  Looking backwards, he saw the big rock had mobilized and was racing down the mountain after him.  Napi was afraid.  As he got out of the mountains, he called on his friends, the animals, to chase the rock away.  The rock rolled over the buffalo and the deer, and laughed at the coyote. Napi had run several hundred miles and was concerned at the anger in the rock and whether it would roll over him.  It was getting dark so Napi called on his friends, the bats, to help him.  The bats began diving at the rock and wearing it out.  Eventually, they hit the rock so hard, that it split, and the life went out of the rock, and it sank to the ground.  Napi thanked the bats.  Napi then asked the Blackfoot to honour the rock and remember it by visiting it from time to time. 

Today, the rock is a landmark visited by tourists, and included in things like wedding photographs by those that live near it.  There seems to be "something" about the rock that draws people to it. Perhaps the rock has become the symbol of doing the impossible.

Wishing you joy in discovering the impossible,

Judith