Big Muddy Badlands

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The Big Muddy Badlands are a series of desert-like hills and valleys in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, and northern Montana, along the Big Muddy Creek. The Big Muddy Valley is about 55 kilometers long, 3.2 kilometers wide, and up to 160 meters deep. The area was formed more than 12,000 years ago when a glacial lake flooded the land at the end of the last Ice Age. Big Muddy Lake is a large salt lake at the heart of the badlands, with Willow Bunch Lake and Lake of the Rivers farther upstream.

Castle Butte is a well-known feature—a sandstone and clay outcrop rising about 60 meters above the prairie. It lies about 19 kilometers south of Bengough on Highway 34, roughly halfway between Big Muddy Lake and Willow Bunch Lake.

Jean Louis Legare Regional Park near Willow Bunch offers camping and a golf course. Ranching and tourism are important here, and tours of the badlands are available from Coronach.

The area is important for birds and includes four Important Bird Areas that protect habitat for the nationally endangered piping plover.

History and heritage: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Badlands were at the northern end of the Outlaw Trail, a route used by outlaws across the American West. Figures like Sundance Kid and others are said to have passed through the area.

In 1999, a 256-hectare area in the Canadian part of the badlands was set aside as the Sam Kelly Sites. This site contains nine archaeological sites, including stone rings, caves, and homestead remains.

Buffalo Effigy is a 64-hectare site built by Indigenous people from fieldstone overlooking West Beaver Creek near the Montana border. It includes a buffalo-shaped figure, a stone cairn, and several stone rings, and it was recognized in 1999.

Minton Turtle Effigy sits on a hill overlooking the Badlands and Big Muddy Lake. It is about 42 meters long and 26 meters wide. Identified in 1965, some people think it represents a turtle, while others think it’s a badger. The site is protected and marked with a plaque.