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Willow Bunch Lake


Willow Bunch Lake covers the physiographic area that is also referred to as the Great Plains Province of the Interior Plains of North America. Elevation ranges from 2,200 feet along the base of the Coteau Upland to 1,875 feet in the northeastern region of the lake. 

During the Pleistocene era nearly the entire lake was covered with continental sheets of ice. Currently, the surface deposits are largely of glacial origin. The remaining surface deposits consist of pre-glacial bedrock or recently exposed glacial deposits. The glacial history of Willow Bunch Lake is difficult to study because of the unique topographic setting. The region is relatively narrow, and therefore successive ice ice-fronts would be confined in the small regions making it hard to examine.

The glacial history of the region can best be understood through eight phases:

1. Continental ice sheets overrode the Missouri Couteau Upland and advanced to an elevation of about 2900 feet in the Wood Mountain Upland. The eroding ice moving southwestward and caused parallel groves in the bedrock near Big Beaver. The canyons and buttes near Rockglen were shaped mostly through this process.

2. The next known phase occurred when ice overwhelmed the Coteau Lake Channel. The movement caused meltwater flowed down the Rockglen Channel and further deepened the channel.

3. An ice front advanced to the Big Muddy Valley and deposited the poorly developed Harpetree End Moraine.

4. The ice that deposited the Harptree End Moraine thinned and wasted away. Small ponds began forming against the ice front, which affected the north Lake Willows. Water drained from this lake into the Twelve Mile Lake Channel and then eventually into the Big Muddy Valley.

5. Ice in the lowland flowed against rigid stagnant ice on the Missouri Coteau and deposited outwash sand and gravel on the surface of the ice near Horizon and at Ormiston. The meltwater flowed into the Big Muddy River and eroded part of the valley train sediments that were earlier deposited.

6.Old Wives Lake drained through the Ardill Channel in front of the Ardill End Morraine.

7. Trossachs Channel was eroded in ice marginal position during a temporary stand of the ice front.

8. Lake levels were maintained at an elevation of about 1900 feet. The Weyburn Lobe continued to waste until its front was north of Yellow Grass.



Vegetation and Soil
The native vegetation surrounding the lake can be best described as Mixed Prairie type. This is directly related to the constantly changing climate of the region that varies between extremes depending on the season. The hills and grassy pastures of Willow Bunch provided for good conditions to raise livestock. It did not provide for good cultivating ground however, because of saline flats, stony deposits, and slough areas. Farming in general was largely impractical in Willow Bunch, during early settlements. This pushed most farming families towards raising livestock instead. Growing crops was difficult to do, mostly because no railway travelled through Willow Bunch, or near its vicinity. This therefore made selling crops near impossible.

The Metis people of Willow Bunch particularly focused on raising livestock, and had farms that housed large herds. The 1890s brought with them a period of great difficulty, as the regions surrounding Willow Bunch were faced with several years of drought. Livestock losses were more severe in 1893, and also contributed to the closure of the community school. This did not, however, drastically affect the population of the town and therefore suggests that citizens were able to cope through other means. By 1884, there were no longer any bison travelling through Willow Bunch or the surrounding area. This affected the Metis people of the community, and most of them turned to farming to make other use of the land. Rather than relocating the Metis people chose to change their way of life, indicating that living conditions on Willow Bunch were exceptional.