page_title: Petroform
section_title: Whiteshell Provincial Park
hierarchical_section_title: Petroform / Localities / Whiteshell Provincial Park
caption_attribution_description: English: The Petroforms at Bannock Point in Whiteshell Provincial Park in Summer 2012.
context_page_description: Petroforms, also known as boulder outlines or boulder mosaics, are human-made shapes and patterns made by lining up large rocks on the open ground, often on quite level areas. Petroforms in North America were originally made by various Native American and First Nation tribes, who used various terms to describe them. Petroforms can also include a rock cairn or inukshuk, an upright monolith slab, a medicine wheel, a fire pit, a desert kite, sculpted boulders, or simply rocks lined up or stacked for various reasons. Old World petroforms include the Carnac stones and many other megalithic monuments.
context_section_description: One of the locations of petroform sites, including effigies, is in Southeastern Manitoba, in Whiteshell Provincial Park, Canada.  Whiteshell Park is named after the white cowrie shells used by some Anishinaabe peoples in ceremonies.  The natural landscape of the park, with many movable rocks and boulders left behind after the last ice age, gave humans the easy opportunity to arrange them into many human-made patterns. It is an area where three rivers meet, along the edge of the Canadian Shield, close to the edge of prairie grasslands. The rivers were ancient highways and trade routes, bringing humans from far and wide to the area.  Some large boulders appear to be carved, chipped, or altered to look like turtle heads and other animals. A very wide variety of petroform shapes are found in the park, including snakes, turtles, geometric lines, patterns, and large circles. Most of the known petroforms are found on the top of granite ridges. The granite ridges and hills are often very flat in areas, resembling a large concrete parking lot. These open areas have a very smooth granite left behind from the last ice age. In some areas there is no soil, no lichen, and the surface is polished to a shine. The large boulders aligned are in striking contrast to the flat granite beneath them. Local First Nations have teachers and elders that pass along the stories associated with some of these petroforms. Many of the sites and their past use is a mystery, with no certain answers. Some elders refer to one site as extremely sacred and important, and few people should venture there. The Midewiwin have oral teachings about some of the petroforms, but no one group claims to know all the history of the area.
caption: Petroforms in Whiteshell Provincial Park
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