Once thought to be a 'useless' desert, Palliser's Triangle has long been the breadbasket of Canada

CBC Alberta and Saskatchewan have teamed up for a series on weather and climate change on the Prairies. Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga will bring her expert voice to the conversation to help explain weather phenomena and climate change and how it impacts everyday life. As part of the series, we asked the CBC News audience for their ideas for stories that interested them. The history and the future of Palliser's Triangle has been one of the most requested stories. 

Sitting atop his weary stead, Capt. John Palliser gazed eastward across what would one day be known as Canada's breadbasket. 

The area of the southern Prairies is the traditional land of the Blackfoot Confederacy, including the Blood Tribe in southern Alberta. 

What the Irish country gentleman-turned-expedition-leader saw in the region, known for the bison hunt, was anything but hopeful. 

"The heat was very great while travelling through miles of burning sand," Palliser would opine in an 1862 report that assessed western Canada's agriculture and settlement future. 

His travels were commissioned by the British government, and his report would have implications on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the southern Prairies.

A journal entry in The Palliser Papers report dated July 24, 1858, described the area as being flanked by "the ancient forest lands and the true prairie district" with timber and "good soil for agricultural purposes" and "superior pasturage."

"To the south there is no timber, the soil is sandy, with little or no admixture or earthy matter and the pasture is inferior."

Much of the arid country was "occupied by tracts of loose sand, which is constantly on the move before the prevailing winds."

Surrounded by sand hills — "which had been all but impassable to the carts, and fearfully severe on the horses" — Palliser declared that the land around him would "forever be comparatively useless." 

He was talking about the expanse of prairie grassland in southeast Alberta, southern Saskatchewan and extreme southwest Manitoba, that today is known as Palliser's Triangle.

Not exactly a glowing review. 

So why was Palliser's Triangle thought of as poor for farming and what of its future with ongoing climate change?

To better understand, we have to step back and look at the region in the late 19th century.