The geology of the Red Deer River and the morphology of the landscape over time determined the success of farming and ranching enterprises in the Jenner area, and cyclical weather patterns.

The geology or the rock underlying the Jenner area is partly responsible for topography of the land and for the soils that have formed on them. Soils are the result of parent materials x climate x time. The bedrock in the Jenner area is layer upon layer of sedimentary sandstones, lithified sand and silt sediments and shales, lithified clays. These were laid down layer after layer as the land was repeatedly inundated by the Bearpaw Sea of the Cretaceous Period. This shallow or marine environment affects the saltiness and alkalinity of the soils in this area. Any soils developed from the bedrock parent materials will be sandy or silty and may be solenetzic.

The other part of the geological story in the area is that of the Pleistocene Period of glacial times which date from about 2 million years ago to probably 16,000 years ago. The glaciers, possibly being up to one thousand feet thick in this area, carried materials form the Canadian Shield, as ice built up over Hudson’s Bay and gravity caused ice to move from that region toward the southwest and the Jenner area on ice advance. That is why we see the granitic boulders strewn around the plateau side hills of the Lone Star Ranch. These red boulders are associated with ancient volcanic activity billions of years ago on the Canadian Shield.

When the glaciers moved across the land they moved material around and left ridges here and there. When they melted they deposited materials all mixed up in the form of ground moraines and hummocky till. Mostly, one can see depressions where chunks of ice calved off the main ice sheet upon retreat and melted forming little lakes. The material left by the glaciers may make good soils. The soils are classed numbers 4 and 5 on the Canada Land Inventory limitation to productivity scale. This means that due to soil structure, stoniness, topography and uncertainty of rainfall, they are severely limited in productivity.

The Red Deer River itself is a post glacial stream which meanders in a pattern determined by the quantity of water that flowed away from glacial lakes which covered huge portions on Alberta. So, as the glaciers melted they fed huge lakes, the lakes where drained by huge rivers, which meandered across the landscape and the soft sandstones and shales of the Cretaceous Period gave way readily to the erosional forces of water, wind, chemical, frost and gravity. The Red Deer River Valley walls are not very stable. The river is silty and dirty looking. The terraces are unstable and have eroded back considerably since the ranch buildings were constructed.

This is the reason why we have pictures of cowboys trying to pull cows out of quicksand along the shores of the Red Deer River, because these silts and sands, when saturated, will not hold up much weight.