User talk:Hostude

HostUde (glacial erratic)
History HOSTUDE is one of several thousand erratics found in Alberta and Montana called the Foothills Erratics Train, which originated from a landslide in the Tonquin Valley of Jasper National Park, from Lower Cambrian-aged Gog Group.2 Hostude was transported along the confluence of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet and the Laurentide Ice Sheet approximately 12 to 18 thousand years ago 34 to its present location.

The people of the Blackfoot First Nation used Hostude as a landmark for finding a crossing over the Sheep River (where Okotoks stands today) long before European settlement. The town's name, Okotoks, is derived from "o'kotok" [ˈokətok], meaning "rock" in the Blackfoot language, and may refer to the rock.[5] The rock also contains native pictographs and was considered a medicine rock to the natives. In the 1970s the government declared it a Provincial Historic Site to protect its geological and cultural importance.

James Hector, a geologist with the Palliser Expedition, first documented the rock in 1863. He misidentified the feature as a klippe.2

Present day
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— The erratic is clearly visible from the side of Highway 7, and public parking is available at the turn-off. While there is a fence around the HostUde and a sign telling people not to climb, many people visit the rock and ignore the warnings to either boulder or climb the 9-metre (30 ft) tall erratic.[citation needed]