Herschel's location, on the edge of the seaway, resulted in some unusual fossil deposits from a time little understood in Saskatchewan's history.

Two rare marine fossil bonebeds were discovered, as part of the Bearpaw Formation in the Coal Mine Ravine near Herschel in the 1990s.

Land-based dinosaur bones have also been found in the ravine and combined with a large amount of fossilized wood and amber, indicated that the area was likely very close to the shoreline of the seaway at one point.

Visitors can view a variety of paleontology, archaeology and natural history exhibits as well guided tours of the bonebeds themselves.

For thousands of years, these were the hunting grounds of several first nations tribes, including the Blackfoot, Gros Ventre and Plains Cree as well as the Métis.

[11] In the summer of 1859, James Carnegie, the 9th Earl of Southesk a renowned Scottish big-game hunter, travelled to the Herschel area.

With the help of his Metis guide Napeskis (youngest brother of Ahtahkakoop / Chief Starblanket), the Earl killed several large bison and a plains grizzly, a statue of which, can be seen at the Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre in Herschel.

Visitors can go on guided tours of the ceremonial site in the nearby Coalmine Ravine and walk along old First Nations and early settler trails.

The village was named in honour of 19th Century English physicist and astronomer Sir John Fredrick William Herschel.

With the rapidly growing community, education became a concern and a school organization meeting was held at Herschel on October 26, 1912.

A large contingent of Mennonites from Russia arrived in the Herschel area in the winter of 1924/25 to settle and farm, forming a Bloc Settlement.

Poor local roads were blamed for the extent of the blaze, with fire engines from Rosetown unable to reach the community for more than four hours.

Around the same time, a bronze plaque was purchased to honour all of those who fought and died in the Second World War while a flagpole and memorial were erected at the Herschel cemetery.

While preparations were being made to open the Interpretive Centre in June 1994, excavations continued in the ground around the largest of the three remaining petroglyphs in the Coalmine Ravine.

It was staffed by a dedicated team of volunteers and funded by individual and corporate donations, as well as a small government grant.

[7] Outside on the Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre's grounds stands a life size statue of a plains grizzly bear, now extinct in the area, created by artist William Epp in honour of the large bear famously killed on the very spot over 100 years earlier by James Carnegie, the 9th Earl of Southesk while on an expedition to the Canadian prairies in 1859/60 .

[7] Since that time, several paleontologists, students, and scores of volunteers have returned every summer to continue and expand the hunt for and preservation of both paleontological and archaeological specimens in the Coalmine Ravine.

The Herschel area is now considered by many to be a hot spot for archaeology, paleontology, rare and endangered native prairie plants and animals.