This geocache is placed with permission from the RM. Please respect the farmer and stay off of the crop. You can park on the approach or along the road and walk in to the cache. You are looking for a pill bottle. Please do not enter the hibernacula area that is fenced off.
Hamiota has one of the few known nesting sites for the Western Plains garter snake a species once thought to be extinct. A hibernaculum was built for the snakes 6.5 kilometres west of the community.
Owned by the Houck family for nearly 125 years, the farm next to the hibernacula has outlasted other local historical landmarks, like the old Canadian Pacific Railway line and the grain elevator that once stood nearby.
Houck’s Ducks Unlimited Canada agreement conserves more than 42 acres (17 hectares) of wetlands and surrounding grass, shrubs and trees. It’s habitat that benefits more than 50 species of birds and other animals. Its prairie pothole wetlands are ideal for many waterfowl, especially canvasback ducks.
A couple of its features point to its long history. On one corner, now owned by the municipality, was a sidetrack of the Canadian Pacific Railway and a grain elevator. The elevator, built in 1924, was removed after it closed in 1974 and is now the site of one of the few known hibernacula for the western plains garter snake in southwestern Manitoba.