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Back on Hwy 11, on the west side of the South Saskatchewan, the tiny farming community of DUCK LAKE - many of whose buildings have outdoor murals depicting local history - is home to a Regional Interpretive Centre at 5 Anderson Ave (late May to early Sept daily 10am-5.30pm; $4; tel 467-2057), with displays on Indian, Métis and pioneer society from 1870 to 1905. Prize exhibits include some elaborate Cree costumes; an outfit that belonged to the Sioux chief Little Fox, an adviser to Sitting Bull; and Gabriel Dumont's gold watch, presented to him in New York where he was appearing in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Continuing 26km west along Hwy 212, you'll reach Fort Carlton Provincial Historic Park (mid-May to early Sept daily 10am-6pm; $2.50), a reconstruction of a Hudson's Bay Company trading post circa 1860. Founded in 1810, the riverbank station was fortified in successive decades and became an important centre of the fur and pemmican trade, until the demise of the buffalo brought an end to its success. Reduced to a warehouse facility in the early 1880s, the fort was garrisoned by the Mounties during the Northwest Rebellion , but it was finally burnt down and abandoned in 1885.

The visitors centre (tel 467-5205) provides an historical introduction to the fort, whose stockade shelters replicas of the clerk's quarters, a sail and harness shop, a fur and provisions store with piles of colourfully striped Hudson's Bay Company blankets and bottles of bright Indian trading beads, and a trading shop, where the merchandise included gunpowder - which meant the clerks were forbidden to light a stove here, no matter what the temperature. Just outside the walls of the stockade are three tepees, neatly aligned along a path. The centre, also offers guided trail walks , which allow you to see the remains of rutted wagon trails made by carts carrying supplies to and from the fort. There's also an on-site campsite (tel 467-5205 or 933-7937; $9; mid-May to early Sept). Take care when hiking or camping, as the wooded gullies of the North Saskatchewan River are home to a large number of black bears .