[6] A quarter of a century later, the first settlers arrived in the Luseland district, drawn by accounts of the rich pastures of prairie wool along the Grass Lake valley.

Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior, indicating that the Co. had made a deal to purchase Canadian Northern Railway lands, provided they could secure the remaining homesteads in Townships 35 and 36, Range 24-26.

Meanwhile, British-Canadian settlers had begun to take up homesteads in 1907, and large numbers, particularly from Ontario, began to arrive in 1908, lured by stories of the rich dark soils along the Grass Lake valley.

Because religion was such an essential part of pioneering life, and because of the diverse cultural mosaic, the small town of Luseland once boasted six churches.

Finer glacial sediments along these valleys gave rise to the rich black chernozemic soils that supported the Fescue grasslands, or prairie wool as it was called by early settlers, and, consequently, to the "buffalo highways" that led toward the Neutral Hills and the sand lands around Sounding Lake.

These glacial channels were very important for the earliest aboriginal peoples and it is no accident that a major archaeological site is located just across the border in Bodo, Alberta,[9] and that many ancient artifacts and tent rings can be found around Hearts Hill and Cactus Lake.

As war escalated in the 19th century between the westward expanding Cree, middlemen with the Hudson's Bay Company, and the equine-proficient Blackfeet, the hilly moraine country became neutral territory where neither tribe ventured, and the last of the bison herds took refuge.

[10] These herds, following their ancient pathways along the Fescue-flanked valleys and long alkali marshes, were eventually pursued by the Métis "hivernants" who based their winter operations out of Round Plain, south of present-day Saskatoon.

[12] Because of their underlying richness and organic content of 7 - 8 percent, the Fescue grasslands (or prairie wool as it was called ) were quickly broken, leaving only small fragments today.

These include a swimming pool, skating rink, library, large historical museum, two parks, and a movie theatre.