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Palliser's Triangle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Palliser's Triangle is a geographic area mostly in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. The triangle extends southwards from Red Deer and extends south to the United States border.
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The area was named after John Palliser who led the survey expedition to Canada's west that first remarked on this area. Palliser discovered it was a dry land with no trees, which he thought would be unsuitable for growing crops. A few years later John Macoun, a government official, argued that it would be good for growing wheat and advertised it as such to immigrant farmers. The triangle began to be settled and farmed at the start of the 20th century.
For a number of years this area was a haven for ranchers. The sandy soil, grassly land cover, and dry weather supported cattle grazing. Many U.S. ranchers would bring herds up north to graze here. By 1912 many of the lands here were overgrazed.
For a time yields were high but a combination of the dry conditions and poor agricultural practices saw the area turn into a Dust Bowl in the 1930s, helping plunge Canada into the Great Depression. Eventually new farming techniques and a series of rainy years helped to reestablish the area as an important farming region. However, farming has always been precarious and to this day the area's farmers often need large government subsidies to deal with drought conditions.
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