Canada's February 1999 millennium quarter was designed by well-known
Calgary artist Lonnie Springer, President of What if...? Studios.
The design of this coin harks back to the mystery and drama of Canada's
distant past. It depicts an electrifying place: Writing-On-Stone Provincial
Park in southern Alberta.
For many centuries the bizarre rock formations here have attracted aboriginal
peoples. By carving and painting on the soft, golden-sandstone cliffs, the
First Nations of the prairies recorded important events and communicated
with the spirit world.
The petroglyphs (rock carvings) illustrated on this millennium coin -
the human figure, the horse and the shielded warrior - give us a vivid glimpse
of native history and spiritual life. The coin also documents with startling
clarity the arrival of the horse in Canada.
Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park is "a place in which the
stories told in the rock have long outlasted the story-tellers!"
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