Besant Park, located 20 minutes west of Moose Jaw, is one of the best-kept secrets in the region.
The sign just off the Trans-Canada Highway leads down a narrow paved road among prairie grass and sage then is flanked by rows of spruce and poplar trees to the valley bottom.
The park is built along the meandering Sandy Creek with plenty of picnic turnouts, parking and open spaces for the kids to run and play.
Barbecues are installed all over the park.
A natural outdoor swimming hole, now closed for the COVID-19 quarantine, is set behind the park office.
About 100 campsites, many with long-term campers, sit among the trees and sand hills on the west end of the 300-acre park.
Three events scheduled for the park this year — July 1 celebrations, a car show, and the renewed Sandy Creek Gospel Jamboree — have been cancelled during the lockdown.
Besant has been a special place for centuries.
Located along the Red Deer Trail, early settlers used it to travel from Moose Jaw to the Red Deer River forks on the Alberta border.
Actually, the trail was used for hundreds of years by the First Nations who camped in the valley and hills for water, firewood and shelter. Trail ruts can be seen near a historical marker.
Birders enjoy the park, often seeing great horned owls, northern flickers, gray catbirds, and swallows.
Besant Park was built by district residents around a picnic spot on Sandy Creek with planting of trees, enlarging the water hole, bridges and grass.
The park then became a provincial-regional park. In the 1990s the deficit-cutting government planned to close it.
Local farmer Bill Campbell and his family came to the rescue with successful negotiations to lease the place.
Thirty years later the park is as exceptional as ever.
Nearby on private land archaeological digs in the sand hills discovered a midden with evidence of 13 layers of campsites by different cultures during the last 3,000 years — showing that Besant is indeed a special place.
The park is now open following COVID-19 regulations.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
