The St. Mary Canal, excavated by hand in 1898, was the first step in the St. Mary River Irrigation District, a massive system that now includes two dams, 413 kilometres of canals and three principal storage reservoirs holding almost 500,000,000 cubic metres of water. The entire SMRID stretches from the Waterton Dam at Hillspring to Medicine Hat, and is one of four major Irrigation Districts in Southern Alberta.
Look for several other SMRID caches in southern Alberta.
Watch for barb wire.