Home, Home on the Range:
What Range Road Was That ~ in Western Canada?
Lianne Kruger
If your ancestor was a homesteader in western Canada, you may obtain a copy of their Homestead Patent from the archives. The certificate will contain the location of the homestead, but how do you find out where that is?
The following is an example of a Homestead certificate available with permission from The Red Deer & District Archives. The land description on this certificate states:
NW Quarter, Section 34, Township 37 Range 25, West of the 4th Meridian.
That is all very good, but where is that in Canada? Western Canada identifies land by the Dominion Land Survey known as the DLS, which began in 1871. It is the world’s largest survey grid system laid down in a single integrated system. It is 800,000 square kilometres (309,000 sq. miles).
When identifying where this land is located, we start at the last description and work our way backwards.
Figure 2: From Libraries and Archives Canadian www.collectionscanada.gc.ca
Meridians
Meridians are the main north–south lines of the survey, shown in red on the map above. The First, also known as Principal or Prime) Meridian located at 97°27′28.41″ west. This is just west of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The eastern section of Manitoba is known as East of the Principal Meridian (EPM). It is from the Ontario border to just west of Winnipeg and north as illustrated on the map above.
Each meridian is 14° west of the previous meridian. The 4th meridian is the Saskatchewan and Alberta border.
A homestead in southern Alberta is described as "W4M" or "W4" or west of the fourth meridian.
NW Quarter, Section 34, Township 37 Range 25, west of the 4th meridian.
As we look at the western Canadian map this tells us the homestead is in the east half of Alberta.
Range roads
Range roads are used to identify North and South roads between each Meridian, numbered from east to west starting at 1 from each meridian.
NW Quarter, Section 34, Township 37, Range 25, West of the 4th Meridian.
Baselines
Baselines are the main east–west lines, starting with 49th parallel, Canada/US border. Each baseline is about 24 miles (39 km) north of the previous one, ending at 60° north, the Northwest Territory border. They are identified as township roads.
Township roads are the East to West roads numbered from south to north starting at the 49th parallel, some of which are baselines.
NW Quarter, Section 34, Township 37, Range 25, West of the 4th Meridian.
Townships
Each Township is then divided into 36 squares, each about 1 mile (1.6 km) square. Therefore, each township is a 36 square mile.
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Note how the townships are numbered. The numbers weave back and forth. They do not start the numbers on the right side for each row.
NW Quarter, Section 34, Township 37, Range 25, West of the 4th Meridian.
The section is highlighted above.
In most townships 11 and 29 sections were reserved for school lands. All other odd-numbered sections were reserved for railway grants. Hudson Bay Company retained section 8 and section 26 but the NE quarter; in every fifth township the company got all of section 26. The other sections were for Homesteaders. The Hudson Bay Company used the land or sold it for income.
Sections
Each section is divided into four quarters or into sixteen legal sub-divisions.
NW Quarter, Section 34, Township 37, Range 25, West of the 4th Meridian.
This quarter is highlighted below.
Sometimes they did not receive a full quarter section. An example is:
SE quarter of the NE quarter.
To find this land, find the NE ¼ of the section then within that quarter find the SE quarter. The section is highlighted below.
In some cases the land description was identified by the sub-divisions section number. They are numbered the same way sections are numbered within townships, weaving numerically as shown below, therefore the description above would be number 9.
Corrections
Because Columbus was correct, the world isn’t flat, and thus townships are not perfectly square. They are smaller at the top [the North end] then the South. This means that there must be a correction every 4 baselines. Corrections are visible on maps. A Range Road heading north ends at a township road but continues east of its original position, heading north again.
