The Dawn Of Time
The Carberry area is located in the Prehistoric Upper Assiniboine Delta. This delta is composed of outwash deposits from the glacial spillway which drained meltwater from the receding Laurentian Ice Sheet by way of the Qu'Appelle Channel.
The head of this vast delta is to be found immediately to the east of Brandon. The eastern edge of the Upper Delta is marked by Campbell Ridge, known locally as the Arden Ridge, and extends approximately from Arden to Treherne. The Prehistoric Upper Assiniboine Delta covers about 1600 square miles. The Lower Delta covers an additional 900 square miles.
The variable soils found throughout the district reflect the geological and climatic factors which governed the formation of the delta. The head of the delta (Brandon area) is characterized by boulder lag deposits and coarse sands sorted by the fast moving water pouring from the spillway.
Further east around Shilo, coarse sands and gravel occur.
Near Carberry, the water slowed as it moved east. Local pond formation and delta marshes occurred, which allowed finer particles to settle out forming the fertile Carberry Plains. Still further east, the fine rich soils of the Arizona, Sidney and Firdale areas settled out of the meltwater.
Rushes, marsh grasses and willows quickly stabilized the lower wet areas of the delta, but the higher, sandy beach bar deposits were whipped into sand dunes -- the famous Bald Head Hills area north of Glenboro.
As the waters of ancient Lake Agassiz dropped to the level of the Campbell Beach (Arden Ridge), an eastern spillway rushing to the Great Lakes, delta channels such as Pine Creek, Squirrel Creek and the modern Assiniboine River cut deeply into the eastern escarpment of the delta, leaving the ravines which are still much in evidence to the east of the Carberry Plain.
The landscape of this area at the time of the formation of the Carberry Plains would not have been inviting. It was dotted with large marshes surrounded by miles of blowing sand and slashed with deeply eroded channels. The high flanks of the delta, the Riding Mountain Highlands and the Tiger Hills, were covered with boreal forest composed of black spruce, aspen and birch. Aside from seasonally nesting waterfowl, there was little game.
NOTE: The sources of this information are listed in the Bibliography and are available at the Carberry North Cypress Library and the Carberry Plains Archives.
The head of this vast delta is to be found immediately to the east of Brandon. The eastern edge of the Upper Delta is marked by Campbell Ridge, known locally as the Arden Ridge, and extends approximately from Arden to Treherne. The Prehistoric Upper Assiniboine Delta covers about 1600 square miles. The Lower Delta covers an additional 900 square miles.
The variable soils found throughout the district reflect the geological and climatic factors which governed the formation of the delta. The head of the delta (Brandon area) is characterized by boulder lag deposits and coarse sands sorted by the fast moving water pouring from the spillway.
Further east around Shilo, coarse sands and gravel occur.
Near Carberry, the water slowed as it moved east. Local pond formation and delta marshes occurred, which allowed finer particles to settle out forming the fertile Carberry Plains. Still further east, the fine rich soils of the Arizona, Sidney and Firdale areas settled out of the meltwater.
Rushes, marsh grasses and willows quickly stabilized the lower wet areas of the delta, but the higher, sandy beach bar deposits were whipped into sand dunes -- the famous Bald Head Hills area north of Glenboro.
As the waters of ancient Lake Agassiz dropped to the level of the Campbell Beach (Arden Ridge), an eastern spillway rushing to the Great Lakes, delta channels such as Pine Creek, Squirrel Creek and the modern Assiniboine River cut deeply into the eastern escarpment of the delta, leaving the ravines which are still much in evidence to the east of the Carberry Plain.
The landscape of this area at the time of the formation of the Carberry Plains would not have been inviting. It was dotted with large marshes surrounded by miles of blowing sand and slashed with deeply eroded channels. The high flanks of the delta, the Riding Mountain Highlands and the Tiger Hills, were covered with boreal forest composed of black spruce, aspen and birch. Aside from seasonally nesting waterfowl, there was little game.
NOTE: The sources of this information are listed in the Bibliography and are available at the Carberry North Cypress Library and the Carberry Plains Archives.