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Tom Monto

Old Man's Knoll - sacred site east of Edmonton (likely destroyed around 2019)

Updated: Feb 28

A physical feature in Alberta bore the name of Old Man, a name of the Creator in Native sacred beliefs.


Old Man's Knoll was a landmark east of Edmonton, mentioned in old copies of the Edmonton Bulletin. Its location is not apparently known by the County of Strathcona Archives and Museum staff.


But the name of Oldman Creek on the east edge of Edmonton (see Naming Edmonton) and in the County of Strathcona is due to the presence of the Old Man's Knoll nearby. This leads me to believe Old Man Knoll was the locally-prominent butte that once stood on the west side of Highway 21 north of Township 534 (north of the railway crossing and highway overpass and north of the two-pond mansion as well).


The butte was bulldozed out and its rocks and gravel trucked away around 2019.


The Old Man's Knoll is mentioned in J.P. Berry's monograph Clover Bar in the Making 1881 1931. That book says a southern branch of the Carlton Trail crossed the prairies south of the river (the main route being on the north side of the river, running through Victoria Settlement (Pakan)). Berry wrote that the south route ran through the present site of Bruderheim and over Old Man's Knoll as it came toward Edmonton from the east. (p. 2)


If that butte destroyed circa 2019 was indeed the Old Man's Knoll, an historic sacred site, its destruction could be counted as a marker of the approaching end times. Certainly we cannot continue to live as we are - the world is getting used up.


(this was basically copied over from Montopedia blog "Mound Culture in North America...")

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