In the arid southwest corner of Saskatchewan, where the Frenchman River winds through rolling prairie, Grasslands National Park spreads across roughly 900 square kilometres, protecting one of the last untouched expanses of mixed-grass prairie in the country. Long before it was granted that status, however, this sweep of coulees and open range served as the seasonal hunting grounds of the Nakoda and other Indigenous peoples, who followed the great bison herds across the plains. Archaeological evidence, including tipi rings and ancient bison drive lanes, suggests that people lived and hunted here for thousands of years before European traders and ranchers reached the region in the nineteenth century. Those newcomers grazed cattle and broke the sod for economic gain, and ranching still shapes the surrounding communities today.

By the middle of the twentieth century, naturalists and local landowners had begun to recognize the value of preserving a stretch of genuine prairie, not only for future generations but also to shield its native grasses and vanishing wildlife from the plough and from overgrazing. Persuading the federal government to act proved slow, as more pressing matters occupied officials' attention for decades. An agreement to create the park was finally signed in 1981, though the land was assembled only gradually, parcel by parcel, as neighbouring ranchers agreed to sell. Because the park was pieced together in this way, and because only gravel roads reach its two blocks, it has never been developed for mass tourism and is managed chiefly as protected prairie rather than a resort.