In 1859, James Carnegie, the ninth Earl of Southesk of Scotland came to Western Canada and embarked on a hunting trek from Fort Gary to the Rocky Mountains. His diary detailed events of the day and his close encounters with bison, deer and grizzly bears.
His accurate recordings of land locations and landmarks placed his hunting party in the Bad Hills area around July 20th of that year. He shot a plains grizzly bear in a ravine near Herschel and skull and hide is still on display in the Kinnaird Castle in Scotland today.
The grizzly bear gradually became extinct to the area as a result of being hunted down and pushed out by farming. The last plains grizzly bear was spotted in the early 1920s.
The museums of Harris, Biggar and Herschel tell the story of the travels of this first Saskatchewan tourist and remind us of how dramatically life changed after the settlement of the prairies.
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