What are the Cypress Hills?

The Cypress Hills are an elevated plateau straddling the southern Alberta-Saskatchewan border, rising about 600 metres above the surrounding prairie to a maximum elevation of 1,468 metres at the Head of the Mountain in Alberta. The hills are notable for being the highest point in Canada between Labrador and the Rocky Mountains and for being one of the few areas of southern Canada that escaped Pleistocene glaciation, leaving relict plant and animal communities found nowhere else in the prairies.

The Cypress Hills are the eroded remnants of an ancient plateau, formed by gravel deposition during the Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary periods (about 65 to 35 million years ago). During the last Ice Age, continental glaciers from the north flowed around the hills rather than over them, leaving a 'nunatak' or ice-free refugium that preserved species such as lodgepole pine, white spruce, montane meadow communities, and the Hamilton Lake-affined fish community. The plateau supports the most diverse plant and animal communities of any region in southern Saskatchewan, including more than 600 plant species, 220 bird species, and 47 mammal species.

The hills were the site of the Cypress Hills Massacre of June 1, 1873, when a group of American wolfers and traders killed at least 23 Assiniboine Nation members at Battle Creek. The massacre was the catalyst for the federal government to establish the North-West Mounted Police (now the RCMP) in 1873 to bring law and order to the Canadian West. Fort Walsh, established by the NWMP in 1875 in the Cypress Hills, served as the force's principal western post until 1882, when the headquarters moved to Regina. Fort Walsh National Historic Site preserves the reconstructed fort and the surrounding cemetery.

The Cypress Hills are protected on both sides of the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, established in 1989, is Canada's only interprovincial park, spanning both provinces with co-management between the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments. The park protects about 384 square kilometres of the eastern (West Block) and central (Centre Block and East Block) sections. The Alberta side includes the Reesor Lake area; the Saskatchewan side includes the West Block centred on Lookout Point. Cypress Hills was designated a Dark Sky Preserve in 2004, the first Dark Sky Preserve in Saskatchewan, with minimal light pollution and excellent night-sky viewing. The hills are also a major birding destination during spring and autumn migrations.