Along what is the Cdn-USA border in Southern Alberta there is a wonderful, out of the way camping park, called "Writing on Stone Provincial Park." It is situated on the Milk River, which starts in the USA, swings into Canada and then south to the Missouri River. It is part of the 'Missouri breaks' or head waters of the mighty "Mo." which flows to the "ole Miss" and on to New Orleans and then the Gulf of Mexico. This was sacred ground to early men and women on the Great Plains. The sandstone Hoodos are the home of the largest collection of Glyphs left in North America north of Mexico. It is a library of (to date) unreadable pictographs left by passing bands of Mastodon/Camel and Buffalo hunters of years gone by.

My eldest son and my perfect grandson may have found the Alberta Rosetta stone to unravel this ancient mystery!

It is a summer tradition to spend a week at this site with my son's inlaws, a singing, dancing, camping adventure amongst the Hoodos and the Monopoly board. I am often outlawed as I always win at 'monopoly of the conversation' and some times at the game too.

Imagine the great rolling Prairie, gold in the August sun, Deer, Hawks, Badgers etc., the highway rolling away to the horizon, not a town or even a tree in sight for many long miles. You suddenly see the Sweet Grass hills of Montana across the level plain and over the Medicine Line. A few miles short of them you drop into the Milk River valley. There are the very old Cottonwood trees, Saskatoon berries, Wolf willows and a small simple camping ground complete with a government staffed Interpretive Center. As you enter this oasis you are warned Do not in any way deface this historic site! (Only a moron would.)

You register, set up~and run down to the river for a swim...heaven on earth...huge trees...children meeting new friends, adults Bar-B-Qing..singing around the.common campfire...brilliant Moon and Stars... unafraid wild animals and even the odd endangered species Rattlesnake are all part of your escape from the cities.

You know that for thousands of years, other North American's camped here with their Teepees and also cooked over open fires, and they sang around the campfire too. Late at night, if you listen carefully, you can still hear their songs. If you walk very quietly down the river in the moonlight, you may hear their Elders telling the old stories to the adults and children of their Band around their fires. Stay back in the tree line and listen closely to their talk about water, the land, ancestors and the animals that were all part of their existence entwined with the loving Mother Earth.

During the day you might, from time to time, see ghostly individuals, dressed in Deerskin, with feathers in their hair, up high in the Hoodos engraving messages for posterity. They, like modern authors, know that as long as their words are read they are immortal. Even when we die, there is our name engraved on a stone to mark our final camping place. We hope that this will make us immortal, or at the very least, let others know that we existed and walked this earth, loved, made mistakes, had joys, sorrows and regrets, had a family and died at peace with the knowledge that there is something after life. If this is not so, why else have "Writing on Stone?"

Things have changed on the Milk River. Something has gone dreadfully wrong in the Missouri Breaks. The head waters were always safe to drink and swim in, but this year the Wardens have posted a sign, all along the river, Caution Coliforms present in the water, swimming not recommended."

My son and my 'perfect' grandson using this "Rosetta" stone have broken the ancient pictograph code!

According to them, the key was in the Alberta GOVERNMENT sign. After reading it the Glyphs opened like a picture to the modern world. The first ancient glyphs they deciphered read.

1. "Enjoy this wonderful place while you can, a band of Whitefaces are coming from across the salt water, they will kill all the animals and rape the land.
2. "Take heed the time of the White disaster is approaching. Soon we will only be allowed to live in one small-restricted place.
3. "The Whites will feed our people 'Firewater' in trade for our women and hides, do not drink their Firewater.
4. "There is a time coming when great stone Teepees will be on the plains and the air will be poisoned.
5. "Great holes will be dug in the earth and filled with the rejected riches pulled from the earth's heart and made from the trees.
6. "The White government will not listen to the people about poisons on the land, in the air and water until it is to late. Then the people every where will all die?

They stopped translating after they read the following glyph they found at the mouth of a small cave. All they could do was hug each other and cry...it read...

The Water every where, and even here at the sources of the mightiest river, will be poisoned, then there will be nothing!

IT IS WRITTEN ON STONE! TAKE HEED!

Signed; the Galloping Geezer
Jack C. Downey CD
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