Large areas of native grasslands and shrubs can still be found in the Beaver Hills region, and along the Whitesand River.[3] The hills are well-adapted for stock raising.[4]
History
Early colonization of the hills included a colony of three to four hundred Dakotans at Sheho, Saskatchewan. Disappointment at the lack of the promised transcontinental rail line caused these numbers to dwindle to just a few[5] by the late 1800s.
In 1897[6] the first Galician (Ukrainian) colony in Canada, consisting of 511 families, was established at Beaver Hills.[7]
A large boulder with a carved face petroglyph was found on December 25, 1905 by Charles Noddings from the Beaver Hills area, and was the stimulus for the creation of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in 1906.[11]