Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Part 2

This post is the second which looks at the ideas presented in the following paper:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

by Charles W. Bohi, Leslie S. Kozma

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the

Prairie Division, Canadian Association of Geographers in 2007

(Mr Bohi noted my interest in the area and emailed a copy.)

*  *  *

The link to my first post is below:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Part 1

I actually found a link so you can download the research paper itself in PDF form:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

The images I insert are not from the paper.

Square, indented paragraphs contain only my ideas or comments.
My brief account will only skim over some key elements of the paper.

*  *  *

Previously, the authors examined information related to the 1932 Duff Commission:

1. Why the Interwar branch lines were built.

2. Whether the CNR was the aggressor.

*  *  *

This post looks at the third and final question from the paper:

3. Was building these [Prairie branch] lines a 'Disastrous Mistake'?

Generally, the Interwar branch lines were constructed to serve Prairie farmers.
They were growing wheat - an important Canadian export.

As noted previously, a few of the branch lines were built for the purpose of providing transportation services to coal mines in the southern Prairies. As coal was a convenient fuel for space heating in the Prairies during this era, some of the branch lines shortened the distance it had to be moved - saving money for Prairie coal customers, including the wheat farmers.

Continuing with the theme of serving wheat farmers:

These Interwar branch lines included 605 locations
where the railways built sidings and other facilities to receive freight.

By 1936, 57 of these locations were incorporated as villages (50 people),
with 2 communities incorporated as towns (500 people).

In addition, 143 locations had permanent depots
(i.e. station buildings - with 'agents' to conduct local railway business).

The fact that almost one quarter of all locations saw station buildings erected
suggests that a significant amount of local commercial activity took place on these lines.

*  *  * 

A stretch of track we drove along ... as part of a vacation, and shown in another post ... the Fife Lake Subdivision, between Assiniboia and Big Beaver ... is examined in The Weyburn Region - see the References section of the 'Interwar Rail' PDF above. I could not find this Weyburn section in a readable form on the internet. Here are some of the authors' ideas on the Fife Lake Sub ...

from: CPR employee timetable; April 1950.

Atlas of Canada; 1981; Reader's Digest.

Considering the Fife Lake Sub example:

The Interwar branch lines were built to serve Prairie farmers. However, life for the farmers and their families had to consist of more than simply growing and transporting wheat. Using the Fife Lake Subdivision as an example ... the line brought in the essentials of life for those living in this area of Saskatchewan. This line also fostered social institutions and activities - and a sense of community - which softened the often harsh realities people faced in this area of the Prairies.

 In 1960, 68 cars of coal were delivered to the 8 stations on the Fife Lake Sub which had coal dealerships.

In 1969: 10 locations had post offices; 6 had general stores; 7 had gas stations; and Rockglen, the largest settlement, had a grocery store. Farmers could obtain bulk oil deliveries at 7 of the locations (farms often maintained their own bulk tanks with hand pumps for refueling tractors, combines, etc). Rockglen and Coronach also had lumber yards.

The communities on the Fife Lake Sub were also social centres - 6 had elementary schools, and Rockglen and Coronach had high schools. Churches were located at 5 settlements, and 5 settlements had a total of 8 ice rinks.

The following passage is taken from the research paper
and it portrays a time when the train was central to this community ...

*  *  *

from: Canada, A Geographical Interpretation; John Warkentin; 1968; Methuen.

If the railway branch lines had not come closer to the farmers, the farmers would have had to transport their grain by road using their own horse-drawn wagons ... or early rudimentary trucks - for the few who could afford them. Depending on the state of the grain market, this could have had a major impact on farmers' incomes.

As noted previously, the rural (often unimproved, dirt) roads were poorly maintained in the 1920s and 1930s and winter snow clearing was not provided until after the Second World War. (One source I read suggested that the Dominion Land Survey and its system of road allowances left farmers with an inefficient grid of too many roads which exceeded the local government's ability to maintain them.)

In the 1920s, the cost for a farmer moving a bushel of wheat 10 miles to an elevator was about 8 cents. 

Today it may seem that farmers were being pampered with expensive branch lines if they only had to travel 10 miles into town.

Keep in mind that 10 miles is the 'ideal maximum' distance which is often cited in historical accounts ... See the maps above. Horses at a walk, pulling a loaded wagon, travel at about 4 miles per hour. A 20 mile round trip would ideally take about 5 hours of travel time. 

... This would not include harnessing/unharnessing, resting or feeding the horses ... or waiting in line at the elevator ... or any delays or detours due to road conditions ... or time lost climbing steep grades at a slower rate which called for a brief rest of the horses at the summit.

In 1923 (a year of low prices), 8 cents per bushel for transportation to a local elevator was significant because the market was offering about 65 cents per bushel. Consider all the costs faced by the farmer to produce the wheat, and any debt and debt costs, plus clearing enough money from the crop to feed a family for the year, etc.

In the Interwar years, the Canadian government made the decision to assist farmers, and their efforts to produce wheat for export, in a reasonably economical way. The government supported the building of more railway branch lines through areas where farmers faced long road hauls to get their grain to market.

Eleven CNR branch lines (cited in a Senate debate in 1924) cost $9.5 million ... for 397 miles of line. They would carry about 10 million bushels of wheat and 2755 cars of other freight per year. It was calculated that they would save farmers on the lines $1.3 million per year.

Before changes to federal regulations which allowed the railways to abandon branch lines holus bolus in the 1990s (I believe) only a certain percentage of each system could be abandoned in a given year. Regularly, there was the solemn-faced submission by CNR and CPR officials of the following figures to the regulators ... for the branch lines they wished to abandon that year. 

GROSS REVENUE minus EXPENSES equals NET LOSS ... for the branch line.

... In conjunction with evidence presented to the Duff Commission (for 1923-1930) the CNR showed significant net losses for 10 specific lines. 

... However, the authors point out that the 'branch line freight cars' usually travel over the system OUTSIDE of the isolated branch line ... out where a railway's cost per ton-mile is lower. When one considers the whole freight movement ... which includes the more efficient sections of line (longer trains, heavier traffic per mile of track ... transportation 'in bulk') ... the net loss associated with the traffic originating or terminating on the branch lines is considerably less. 

... So, instead of being a 'disaster', the cost of the lines was more reasonable ... if the point was to encourage farmers to contribute to the nation's economy by growing wheat which was mainly for export. And that's what the government had been trying to do.

*  *  *

The Interwar Lines in 1935

When the last lines of this planned network were eventually completed ... in the middle of the Depression ... ecological problems (droughts, grasshoppers, topsoil loss), crop failures, and the Great Depression, itself, killed any enthusiasm for building more branch lines on the Prairies.

The authors provide these points for readers to consider:

• The lines constituted 30% of the rail network in Alberta and Saskatchewan. 
• The country elevator system reached its peak in the 1930s - about 29% of total grain delivery points were on the Interwar lines. 
• In Saskatchewan and Alberta, 27% of all competitive points (where two or more elevator companies had country elevators) were on Interwar lines. 
• From the 1931 census it was found that about 73% of all farms were within 10 miles of a railway station ... only 2% were more than 25 miles away.

In spite of the criticism levelled at the Interwar lines in the Duff Commission report, the authors point out that no wholesale abandonment of the lines was prescribed by Duff - i.e. to avoid throwing good money after 'bad'. In fact, these lines were subsequently key in the transportation of western grain for decades.

Abandonments for some of these lines were as follows:

1950s ... 115 miles

1960-1963 ... 370 miles

1963-1975 ... 525 miles

... As Prairie branch lines were being abandoned in the 1980s and 1990s, I remember a lot of local concern expressed that the infrastructure cost of transporting grain was being shifted from the abandoned lines to the municipal/provincial public highway system ...  as farmers preferred larger and larger trucks (not horse-drawn wagons) as the most economical short-haul method to the nearest surviving railside elevator.

Addressing some of the conclusions of later historians, the authors note that much of the rhetoric surrounding these lines during the 1930s originated from the general climate of bitter political animosity between the Conservatives and Liberals. The conventional wisdom was that the Prairie branch line system was overbuilt because of the actions of the CNR. In particular, Sir Henry Thornton (by then deceased) had been a cheap and easy target for the Conservatives.

Yet, in the face of this conventional wisdom, the Interwar lines continued to be useful ...

In 1963, using the 10-year average of 465 million bushels: about 25% of grain was still originating on the Interwar lines. 

The authors close with a nice (almost poetic) descriptive passage from a Queen's University economist in 1934 ... and I encourage you to download the PDF to have a look at it. 

*  *  *

End of my summary of

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

by Charles W. Bohi, Leslie S. Kozma

PDF here:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

*  *  *

Inspired by that last quotation, today, I purchased a copy of the 2015 biography of economist W.A. Mackintosh (1895-1970). Here is a passage from 1935 in which he describes the realities of farmers in the Canadian 'Wheat Economy' on the Prairies.

"The wheat farmer in western Canada is engaged in a business subject to unusually sharp fluctuations, imposed on it in greater or less degree by pronounced variations in rainfall and the other climatic conditions of wheat growing, and by the necessity of competing in a far distant world market for the sale of a raw material. In these facts of a commercial agriculture in which a high degree of variability is inherent will be found the centre of the economic problems of Western Canada."

*  *  *

from: Canada, A Geographical Interpretation; John Warkentin; 1968; Methuen.

from: Profitable Grain Trading; Ralph M Ainsworth; 1933; (Traders Press).

from: Profitable Grain Trading; Ralph M Ainsworth; 1933; (Traders Press).

from: The Canada Year Book 1934-35; Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

from: Canada Handbook, 1935; Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Part 1

Once I was on a VIA train to London with my boss as we headed for a hospital site visit. The director of another department happened to be on the same train and came over to sit with us. I commented about a 'stop and inspect' because we had tripped a hotbox detector ... and it turned out that the other director had had a relative in the running trades at Chalk River. 

Furthermore, she had just completed her master's degree and her thesis had examined the question:

Could the American west have been opened up without the invention of the railroad?

She said the answer was: 'Yes, eventually it would have been settled, but it would have taken longer.'

Railway building was/is capital intensive. Railways were the first major users of legal incorporation to facilitate raising that capital - and so they could securitize that investment back to investors. 

While a railway generally required low gradients, once the roadbed was prepared, the railway track structure provided an all-weather route on which one could pull long strings of self-steering wagons.

With the weight of the load distributed longitudinally over steel rails, and laterally over sturdy wooden ties ... railways were ideal for moving high-tonnage trains of bulk commodities in all seasons ... and anything else that would fit through the most narrow bridges, cuts and tunnels of its right of way.

Working to understand Canadian railways and how they have connected with the agricultural, economic, financial, political, social and technological elements of Canadian history can be a life-long pursuit. So much has been written and documented that one's knowledge will never be complete.

*  *  *

I was really pleased when my brother, Eric Gagnon, forwarded a study which Charles Bohi thought might be of interest to me:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

by Charles W. Bohi, Leslie S. Kozma

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the

Prairie Division, Canadian Association of Geographers in 2007

*  *  *

... I will attempt to outline some of the interesting information it presents ...

Indented paragraphs contain my own thoughts in passing.

The images inserted are not from the research paper.
I'll apologize in advance for my failures to relay key points precisely.

*  *  *

About 4600 miles of new railway lines were built in the Prairie Provinces between 1919 and 1935. More than 90% of this mileage was constructed in Saskatchewan and Alberta. 

In 1932 a Royal Commission on Railways and Transportation, referred to as the Duff Commission, was set up, under Chief Justice Lyman Duff (1865-1955). Its conclusion was that the construction of these lines was 'a disastrous mistake'.

Duff was the first Canadian to read the government's Speech from the Throne - March 12, 1931 - as the new Governor General, John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir), had not yet arrived. Buchan wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps and is credited with conceiving and promoting the idea of the famous 1939 Royal Tour of Canada. When Buchan died in office of a head injury, Duff again performed as Administrator of the Government until Buchan's replacement was sent over from Britain. Before becoming a lawyer, Duff had earned a double-barreled BA from the University of Toronto - this was in mathematics and (essential when dealing with the politically-tinged task of presiding over Prairie railway branch lines) metaphysics.

This blog post's alternate title could be: The Duff Commission: Math and Metaphysics

Consistent with the Duff Commission's conclusions, many historians studying railway lines of the Interwar period have blamed Henry Thornton and Canadian National Railways for the ruinous overbuilding of Prairie rail infrastructure.

To examine this consensus, the research paper analyzes:

1. Why the Interwar lines were built.
2. Whether the CNR was actually the aggressor.
3. Whether building these branch lines was 'a disastrous mistake'.

Including the lines built by the Northern Alberta Railway, the new lines constituted almost 30% of the Alberta-Saskatchewan rail network.

It was after 1928 that 40% of these Interwar branch lines in Alberta and Saskatchewan were built. 

Here are some key dates relating to this review:

Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada (Liberal) 1921 to 1930.
RB Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada (Conservative) 1930-1935
Duff Commission 1931-1932
Mackenzie King - second term as PM: 1935-1948

Sir Henry Thornton's term as President of the CNR: 1922-1932
Edward Beatty's term as President of the CPR: 1918-1943

*  *  * 

We when all get the time, we can actually read Duff's report ...

Report of the Royal Commission to Inquire into Railways and Transportation in Canada, 1931-2 / Lyman P. Duff, chairman
 (link to PDF for download)

The website above may sometimes be down on weekends.

*  *  *

Duff noted that the Saskatchewan branchlines lines were through thinly populated areas (compared to the US, and Canada as a whole) ... Saskatchewan had 108 people per mile of line constructed.

In general, the Interwar branch lines constituted 41% of the Prairie's rail network but carried only 4.3% of all traffic.

There was 'no doubt as to the disastrous effects of this [branch line] competition'.

In 1932, to a large extent due to the Duff Commission's conclusions, most new construction of lines in western Canada stopped. 

As you know, after Conservative RB Bennett took power, the political knives were out for the Liberal-hired CNR President, Sir Henry Thornton and he was forced to resign - dying of cancer shortly afterwards in 1933 in New York City.

*  *  *

Question 1: Why were the lines built?

Political Pressure

In the west, farmers were increasingly focused on producing wheat for export and this constituted one of Canada's top exports through the 1920s and 1930s. Canadian-produced tariff-protected industrial products, including steel and farm equipment, were seen to benefit eastern Canadian business interests. Free trade with the US - for example to obtain cheaper farm equipment - would have benefitted western farmers ... and a Progressive 'protest' party developed in the 1920s (also running candidates in provincial elections) to promote policy changes. In the Commons, Mackenzie King required the support of these often free-voting Progressives to remain in power.

The restoration of the 1897 Crowsnest Pass Rate and the completion of the Hudson Bay Railway were both policies brought about through the pressures exerted on Mackenzie King's government by the Progressives elected at the federal level.

Economic Concerns

In the years before World War I, the opening of the west and the growing of wheat for export had had a strong effect on Canada's economic growth rate. After the war, as the result of a recession in 1921, wheat prices had dropped from $2.32 per bushel in 1919 ... to $0.76 per bushel in 1921.

33 bushels per short ton ... $0.76 in 1921 = $10.52 in 2018 dollars. 

King thought that continuing to encourage investment in railway and grain handling infrastructure would revive the economy. Farmers would have shorter distances to haul their grain harvest ... and domestic industries, such as steel making and BC's forest industry, would benefit.

Beyond lumber and steel, you can imagine all the diverse business and government activities which would be necessary to support such an economic expansion ... banking, farm equipment, tools, hardware, household goods, construction materials, retail services, religious institutions, schools.

The authors refer to the 'wheat economy' and much of this was driven by high immigration rates from Europe and the US. Many of these newcomers took up farming on the Prairies because of railway and government incentives.

from: Canada's Five Centuries; W Kaye Lamb; 1971; McGraw-Hill.

A representation of Saskatchewan's 'wheat economy' can be seen in the graph below. The 'oats economy' would have been more geared to the domestic economy ... as this was a key 'fuel' for the horses used in transportation and also for those working as draft animals on farms.

from: Saskatchewan - Its Development and Opportunities; 1919; Government of Canada.

Urban Rivalries

The 'wheat economy' resulted in increased economic activity to provide all the diverse goods and services it required.

With such a demand for goods, there was competition amongst settlements to develop into distribution centres. The ideal outcome was to become a railway junction point - perhaps connected with both railway systems. The classic example of a distribution centre is Winnipeg.

From population centres to settlements farther and farther afield, salespeople fanned out (initially by rail) to contact the retailers and citizens who needed their products.  Freight buildings and warehouses are most efficient when located centrally and when goods can flow out along roads or rail lines to customers in the hinterlands beyond.

The authors cite Camrose, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Estevan and Weyburn as towns aspiring to benefit from new branch lines which might have increased their importance as wholesale distribution points serving larger and larger hinterlands.

One western geography I have been reading suggests that the cities which have grown significantly in the Prairie region were those around its edges: Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg. It was suggested that vast distances and the traditionally light distribution of population engaged in agricultural activity along the railways had produced this pattern  - which has largely remained unchanged.

from: Canadian National's Western Depots; Charles Bohi; 1977; Railfare.

A Canadian Northern Railway train circa 1905.

... continuing to examine why the branch lines were built ...

Vast Areas Not Served

One of the examples the authors cite was the Canadian Northern - which had few branches north of its mainline ... in the area west of North Battleford. Consequently, grain growers north of the North Saskatchewan River had long distances to haul their grain and a river to cross before they reached a country elevator.

Another example related to the CPR - which had nothing south of its existing line between Weyburn and Assiniboia. (This area provided the setting for one of our most interesting vacation trips - when we looked at parts of the Fife Lake and Bromhead Subdivisions ... which had been built into this unserved area.)

We are reminded that after World War I farmers were using horse-drawn wagons or sleds to haul their grain. The 1931 Canadian census noted that 97% of the farms were on improved or unimproved dirt roads. The condition of Saskatchewan's rural roads deteriorated during the Depression. These roads were not maintained in the winter until the mid-1950s.

As suggested above, natural features like watercourses (which often had to be forded), ranges of hills, and valleys were major obstacles for farmers moving their grain.

In the 1920s, citizen-owned cars and trucks began to cut into the passenger revenues of the branch lines' often thrice-weekly mixed train schedules. However, there were only 18,257 trucks in service by 1931, while there were 225,000 farms in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Grain was still moved largely by horse ... even if people often chose the convenience of autos over rail for travel between settlements.

With the reintroduced Crow Rate, farmers had a strong incentive to lobby for country elevators to be as near to their farms as possible.

Consider the 'human experience' of farmers in the 1920s ... You can imagine a team of horses working to pull a heavy steel-wheeled wagon (or sled in winter) of grain over all the obstacles described. The load would have been calculated to just make it to the top of the steepest hill, or through the most difficult ford, based on the environmental conditions of that day.  

From all over the catchment area of a country elevator, each farm would be dispatching these small, slow, inefficient movements of grain over and over with an empty backhaul on the return trip.

... Contrast that system with the efficiency of hauling that same quantity of grain over a newly-constructed branch line: Bridges crossed the watercourses; Cuts and fills carried the grain through the hills and over the valleys; Farmers, their family members, and their hired hands spent less time behind horses on dirt roads.

from: Western Canada, Canadian Pacific Railway; prob 1909; CPR 

*  *  *

Question 2: Was the CNR the Aggressor?

The CNR built into 3570 square miles of CPR territory.

The CPR built into 4500 square miles of CNR territory.

Coal is one type of non-agricultural traffic which both railways were often keen to compete for.

... In addition to being used as fuel for steam locomotives, and for industrial and domestic heating and steam production, coal was also used for the production of town gas and coke. In rural areas of the Prairies, where firewood was not available or economical to use, coal was used for domestic heating. The authors note that many small Prairie centres had coal dealerships.

Probably the most coveted and most lucrative freight was LCL - Less Than Carload. (During my father's work in the CPR Department of Freight Receipts at Windsor Station in Montreal they said 'Less Carload' ... maybe CPR docked employees for lost time if they added 'Than'.) Typically, LCL would be a boxcar containing freight from more than one shipper ... destined for a number of consignees at a given population centre. Freight buildings were built at these centres to receive, document, store and distribute the foodstuffs, hardware, household goods etc  received. Often bulk commodities would be received at an industry spur or railway team track (again, we refer to horses).

Express traffic and federal mail contracts also bolstered railway profits and took some of the sting out of hauling the area's agricultural commodities.

The authors provide abundant local geographical evidence regarding particular routes built by both railways to particular centres - which is beyond my ability to explain adequately. 

The authors write that Henry Thornton was often 'reasonable' about the location of new CNR lines and granting trackage rights to the CPR.

In contrast, the CPR often aggressively defended its territory and its own population centres with counter-construction - to block the CNR and/or to spoil the profitability of the unserved territory into which the CNR might build. The CNR tried to build lines reaching CPR centres such as Swift Current, Red Deer and Medicine Hat but was effectively rebuffed.

Below, I attempt to illustrate only a few simple examples which are cited in the research paper.

The authors are very thorough and exact in their documentation of the actual

context and progression of events - which I am not attempting to reproduce here.

(Regular readers of this blog long ago gave up any expectation of seeing academic rigour!)

The maps are taken from: Railroad Map of Western Canada; no date - 1950s?; Canadian Freight Association.

We can only infer that track or stations represented in black are joint operations between CNR and CPR.

 CNR built a line toward Swift Current.

CPR countered by building to Stewart Valley ...
with the implication of building a bridge and line to reach Matador - which was never built.

*  *  *

CNR would have built to Medicine Hat, but CPR would not grant trackage rights within the city.

CPR maintained its monopoly in southern Alberta including the Lethbridge area's coal traffic.

*  *  *

CNR granted trackage rights into Prince Albert and North Battleford.

CPR built freight stations in North Battleford, Humboldt and Prince Albert, 

but shared passenger facilities with CNR at these locations.

North Battleford is a junction northwest of Saskatoon.

Humboldt is a junction roughly east of Saskatoon.

*  *  *

The CPR built more than 700 miles of track north of the CNR's Yorkton SK-Saskatoon-Wetaskiwin AB line.

To see that area on the map above, follow the blue CNR line from the southeast corner of the map 

to 'Artland' in the orange Saskatchewan-Alberta border area.

*  *  *

The authors list the following centres as being invaded by the CPR after World War I:

Saskatchewan: Humboldt, Lloydminster, Melfort, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Tisdale.

Alberta: Vegreville

1931 data for the seven centres

Total population: 23,843

Retail trade: $26,903,500

*  *  *

from: Imperial Royal Canadian World Atlas; ed: Fred James; 1935; Geographical Publishing, Chicago.

*  *  *

The Drumheller coal region includes that area of black 'joint stations' to the northeast of Calgary. 

Before the CNR, the Canadian Northern in 1918 had double-tracked Munson to Wayne 

to handle the heavy coal traffic (up to 30 trains per day).

CPR received permission from BRC to build into these coalfields in 1919.

CNR eventually allowed trackage rights and built a joint line south from Rosedale to East Coulee.

The authors cite this as 'the most serious CPR incursion into CNR territory in Alberta'.

*  *  *

Question 2: Was the CNR the Aggressor?

"Given the CPR's aggressiveness and the CNR's willingness to cooperate with it by granting trackage rights into major trade centres, the charge that the CNR was the aggressor in the Interwar construction of branch lines is not supported by the evidence."

*  *  *

Thanks to Charles Bohi for sending me these Big Beaver photos.

Additional Charles Bohi photos of Big Beaver track and elevators, 

and Coronach and Rockglen stations,

can been seen in these posts:

South of Moose Jaw to Congress, Assiniboia and Rockglen, 1989

Fife Lake, Coronach, Big Beaver to Lake Alma, Saskatchewan in 1989

Big Beaver, SK#11, Paterson Elevator, Look NE, July 1984, Bohi Photo

Big Beaver, SK, End of Track Fife Lake Sub. Supposed to be connected to Bromhead Sub at Minton, Look SW, July 1984, Bohi Photo

Question 3: Was building these lines a disastrous mistake?

... in the next post ...

Saskatchewan and the Dominion Land Survey (1919)

Before continuing our quick sweep through southern Saskatchewan in 1989,
here is a document from 70 years earlier, which explains the Dominion Land Survey system.

This topic arises from the two previous posts, looking at the land and the CPR
between the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border and Moose Jaw ...
and including references to 'correction lines'.

from: Canada Handbook; 1948; Government of Canada.

The 1870s surveying process preceding the Canadian/European/US settling of the Prairies
contrasted with survey systems used in Canada in an earlier age (above).

... And where western settlement had occurred before the 1870s
river frontage and other traditional systems had been in use to organize land title.

Today, aerial views of farmland (e.g. near Selkirk, Manitoba) illustrate the contrasts between the two systems.

from: Canada Handbook; 1965-66; Government of Canada.

The 90 degree angles of the DLS can be see everywhere in the photo above.

*  *  *

A 1919 explanation of the Dominion Land Survey system.

This booklet was published by the federal government in 1919.
In its 150 pages are detailed all aspects of Saskatchewan's features and resources.

*  *  *

If the Minister's name rings a bell ... Arthur Meighen was later prime minister for short periods - twice in the 1920s. 

An Arthur Meighen Digression ...

from: Borden, His Life and World; John English; 1977; McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Originally from Ontario, Arthur Meighen was first elected as the member of parliament for Portage la Prairie in 1908. Later, in various ministerial portfolios ... he presided over legislation and events which included the 1917 Conscription Crisis, the creation of the Canadian National Railways and the Winnipeg General Strike. 

He became prime minister after the resignation of Sir Robert Borden in 1920 ... until the results of the subsequent 1921 federal election ... when Mackenzie King's Liberals were elected and Meighen lost his seat in Portage la Prairie. Leading the Conservatives, Meighen returned as an MP via a by-election in Grenville. >> This supports my long-held observation that everyone has some kind of connection with Lachute, Quebec.

The 1925 federal election resulted in a Mackenzie King minority government ... and the famous King-Byng Affair. About to lose a scandal-inspired vote of censure in the Commons, Mackenzie King deftly asked Byng to dissolve Parliament and call a federal election. Usually ... a governor general would comply with this request. 

Consistent with the practice in those times ... British prime minister ... David Lloyd George ... had recommended to King George V ... that the English-born Julian Hedworth George Byng ('Bungo' to his friends) be appointed as Canadian governor general in 1921.

Responding to Mackenzie King's request for an election, Byng 'interfered' and invited Meighen to form a government. After 3 days in power, Meighen was defeated by a vote of non-confidence. Trivia fans: This was the shortest-lived federal government in Canadian history.

Mackenzie King won the election handily by emphasizing that the foreigner figurehead Byng had interfered in Canadian politics. Meighen, again running in Portage la Prairie, was defeated.

Arthur Meighen was subsequently appointed to the Senate in 1932 by RB Bennett and his life in politics continued after that ...

Historical observation:

Meighen's lifespan encompassed the end of the bison herds on the Prairies,
the Great War, the Great Depression, World War 2,
the end of steam on Canadian railways and the first satellites of the Space Age.

... and also, he probably went to Lachute at some point.

*  *  *

* * END OF THE ARTHUR MEIGHEN DIGRESSION

*  *  *


From a CPR booklet for settlers from Britain circa 1909

The apportionment of Sections in each Township
is shown in this CPR diagram from circa 1909.


*  *  *

from: Arc of the Medicine Line; Tony Rees; 2007; Douglas & McIntyre.

Sappers of the Royal Engineers prepare an international boundary marker near Milk River (in today's eastern Alberta).

As noted above, everything began with surveying the 49th Parallel of latitude ...
which forms much of the boundary between the US and Canada in the west.

The photographs above and below help show the scale of the vast expanse of western land,
and the tiny specks of determined human effort to establish permanent settlements on it.

... Human and animal muscle power did most of the early work of settlement.

from: Canada, The Missing Years; Patricia Pierce; 1985; Stoddart.

Above, settlers are trekking out from Moose Jaw to the patch of prairie they intend to work.

While a sod hut could be built primarily with local material (prairie sod for the upper walls, and a hole in the ground for the living area), stove pipes and other key technologies had to be carted to the staked-out lot which the settler had spoken for ... somewhere out there on the prairie.

from: History of the Canadian Pacific Railway; W Kaye Lamb; 1977; Macmillan.

Photographed after 1900, here is a sod hut.
Anecdotes suggest that its 'green roof' would 'rain' inside for several days after wet weather passed.

The bones are not decoration, but bison remains harvested as a cash crop from the prairie.
The going price for bison bones was $5-8 per ton.

*  *  *

In 1911-1915 ...

The maps above and below show population density in 1911 and features up to 1915
... from my Government of Canada atlas.

I have inserted the key to population density in the upper right corner of the map above.
Most Township squares have fewer than 30 people per square mile.

Once again, I'm bumping up against the size limits for Google Blog images.

The enlarged map section below offers more detail for the area
which will be shown in photos from 1989 in the next post.

*  *  *

Printed cheaply on cheap paper, this 80 page booklet was probably produced in 1909
for free distribution to prospective British settlers visiting 'emigration' offices in Britain.

Horse-drawn binders are working ... they cut and bind groups of wheat stalks into a sheaf.
This bundle of stalks is left lying in the field - each bundle might weight 30 pounds (?)
... depending on the preferences of the farmer, how dry the wheat plants were, weather, etc.
The turning wheels under a binder are geared to drive the cutting and binding mechanism.
A key technology here is the mechanism to knot and cut the binding cord for each sheaf.

The sheaves are next stood vertically on their cut ends
and leaned against each other, forming  stooks, to dry completely
(labour-intensive - stooking workers are not shown).

Once dried, each sheaf is taken from the stook and forked onto a wagon.
The next step, threshing, is done at a central location.

We only see three stooking/forking labourers working in the whole field!

At the threshing machine (not shown),
the wheat seeds are broken free from the straw (hollow stalk) and chaff (seed husks, etc).
Early threshing operations directed the grain seeds into standard 100 pound bags for storage and/or transportation.


Today's modern harvesters (combines) combine the cutting and threshing steps.
Modern strains of short-stalk, earlier ripening wheat are often sprayed with glyphosate
to dessicate the plant before harvesting.
Aircraft can spray grain fields quickly without the loss of plants flattened by tractor-towed spraying equipment.

CPR Moose Jaw, An Old Regina Map & the Prairies - 1859 to 1989

Our south Saskatchewan sweep of 1989 took us by a watercourse named Moose Jaw Creek, according to an 1859 map of the Palliser Expedition. Referring to that map in the Eighteenth Report of the Geographic Board of Canada (containing all decisions to 31 March 1924) ... this creek's name was to be written as Moosejaw.

from: Exploration - British North America. : papers relative to the exploration by Captain Palliser, 1859 at archive.org

I believe the CPR Moose Jaw station is located just north of 

the junction of Thunder Mn Cr and Moose Jaw Cr.

Captain John Palliser (1817-1887) reports below:

from: Exploration - British North America. : papers relative to the exploration by Captain Palliser, 1859 at archive.org

In 1989, we woke up in Regina and sped southbound through Moose Jaw so I've arranged this post in that order.

In 1892:

from: CPR Annotated Timetable (westbound) - July 19, 1892; Railfare reprint.

Regina in 1915:

from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada.

Around 1920:

from: Across Canada, Annotated Timetable (westbound); circa 1920; CPR.

*  *  *

Regina in 1989

Below, with the sunrise on September 12 occuring at around 0630hr, the nearby houses and our VW Fox are frosted. That diesel looks a little cold too.

Looking at a Saskatchewan crop insurance First Fall Frost Map ... between September 11 and 17 is a reasonable time to expect a first frost in the Regina area. I don't know if what you see here would cause frost damage to crops or if it would result in affected grain being classified into a lower grade. However, as eastern Canadians we were surprised when we looked out and saw frost.

As a relevant historical example, if a settler arrived here from Essex in England ... the first frost there usually occurs between November 11 and November 20.

... Welcome to the Canadian west ... Surprise!

I have been reading that as the first (central) areas of the Prairies were being settled, earlier ripening grain cultivars were important to enable the first farmers to avoid frost losses. Some areas of the Saskatchewan frost map show first frosts are expected August 28 to September 4! 

... The Dominion experimental farm system's farms at Brandon, Indian Head and particularly Ottawa were important in developing earlier ripening wheat and other grains because they obtained seeds from similar cold climates (e.g. northern Europe) and tested and interbred them. Not only did the wheat have to ripen in time ... but it also had to have suitable milling and baking properties - particularly if it was to be exported to Europe.

In contrast to ripening earlier to beat frost ... as more southwesterly areas opened up (where we will be driving later on this day) knowledge of moisture-conserving practices (such as summer fallow) became critical for successful farming. 

from: The Imperial Highway; AN Homer; no date (pre-1915); Causton & Sons, London.

*  *  *

Some 'bar graphs' from 1915:

from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada.

Above: After 1900, you can imagine how significant
western grain farming and ranching on the newly-occupied prairies
were becoming for the export-oriented Canadian economy.

from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada.

Above, you can see the countries of birth for people the newly-settled Prairies.
Knowledge of dryland farming techniques did come north with some of the immigrants from the US.

I don't know when bar graphs were 'invented' ... the numbers, above, may seem confusing,
but they just show the percent data to two decimal places.

from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada.

On the 'railway territory' map above, from 1915, you can see the influence of the CPR (green) in southern Saskatchewan.
For fun, notice that the spelling Moosejaw follows the Geographical Board's decision - republished in 1924.

*  *  *

Following, are commercial advertisements 
and a sponsored article about Moose Jaw from circa 1920.

In the following photos, you can figure out the vantage point of the camera ...
if you keep an eye on the grain elevators, water tanks, roundhouse and the station's distinctive roof.

Following the black and white pages is an older colour postcard which clearly illustrates those features.
(The station faces south and the grain elevators are to the west.)

from: Commercial Canada, Its Progress and Opportunities; ed: Fred Cook; circa 1920; Redman Book Co, Leeds, England.

from: Commercial Canada, Its Progress and Opportunities; ed: Fred Cook; circa 1920; Redman Book Co, Leeds, England.

from: Commercial Canada, Its Progress and Opportunities; ed: Fred Cook; circa 1920; Redman Book Co, Leeds, England.

from: Commercial Canada, Its Progress and Opportunities; ed: Fred Cook; circa 1920; Redman Book Co, Leeds, England.

from: Commercial Canada, Its Progress and Opportunities; ed: Fred Cook; circa 1920; Redman Book Co, Leeds, England.

*  *  *

A Moose Jaw Postcard

Postcard mailed Dec 31 1918 within Ontario.

I just noticed the stub switches - this must be a rather old photo.

from: The Imperial Highway; AN Homer; no date (pre-1915); Causton & Sons, London.

The view above comes from a rather elaborate book prepared to promote the CPR corporate empire.

from: Back cover: CPR Public Timetable; April 1939.

The outside back cover of the CPR public timetable shows how Moose Jaw was a key junction

 between the CPR's main line and its track through North Portal, Saskatchewan 

to the US Midwestern States and the bright lights of Chicago.

Four months after this schedule went into effect, World War Two began.

*  *  *

Photos from September 1989 and Our Minutes in Moose Jaw

I discovered that these two photos fit together - though probably not by design.
I think I detect some VIA blue on the closest section of the station - for The Canadian, before its CPR routing was cancelled.

The closed tunnels to the passenger tracks show the former importance of this CPR station.

Swinging the camera a little to the left (south) we see some power waiting for another run.

Finally, looking over Thunder [Mountain] Creek, here is the station (right, with its clock tower) and the CPR offices (left) as seen from the south. The clock could be seen along Main Street for a number of blocks. This would have been helpful to passengers who chose to shop while waiting for their train connections. 

If you locate the two tallest yard light standards, then find a point midway between them on the horizon, you may see that the last of those three or four country elevators was still standing in 1989.