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Alberta's Township System
The following information is excerpted from Doug Barnett's Early
Surveys and Settlements in Central Alberta.
The DLS System first established controlling lines on which to base the
township surveys. It was decided to layout the System on an astronomic
basis, that is "square with the world", with north-south and east-west
lines following lines of latitude and longitude on the earth's surface.
Starting near Winnipeg, Dominion Land Surveyors established six meridians
over a period of time. A meridian is an astronomic north-south line on the
earth's surface. The Principal Meridian was followed by successive Initial
Meridians (the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth), each about four
degrees of longitude apart. The Fourth Initial Meridian later became the
Alberta - Saskatchewan boundary, and the Western Provinces were extended
northward from the 49th parallel (international boundary) to the 60th
parallel, a distance of about 760 miles. As meridians follow the spherical
curve of the earth, they converge as they are produced northward. For
example, the distance between the Fourth and Fifth Meridians along the
49th parallel is about 182 miles (293 kilometres); at the 60th parallel,
the distance between the same two Initial meridians is reduced to about
139 miles (224 kilometres) due to convergence of the meridians. The
Dominion Lands Survey System is therefore an astronomic system with all
north-south lines laid off as true meridians, and all east-west lines
established as chords to parallels of latitude.
Land
between the Initial Meridians was then subdivided into townships. A
township is a square tract of land about six miles (9.7 kilometres) on a
side, containing thirty-six sections (Figure to left.). Townships are
numbered northward, starting from township one at the 49th parallel and
increasing to township 126 at the 60th parallel (the north boundary of
British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba). For example,
Lethbridge is about at township eight; Red Deer at about township
thirty-eight; Athabasca about township sixty-six; Fort McMurray
about township eighty-nine; and Fort Chipewyan about township one hundred
and twelve.
A column of townships in the north-south direction is called a
range. Townships lie in ranges numbered westward from each Initial
Meridian, starting with range one adjoining the west side of each such
meridian. There are thirty ranges between the Fourth and Fifth meridians
along the 49th parallel, but due to convergence of the meridians, this
reduces to only about twenty-three ranges along the north boundary of
Alberta.
Townships are laid off their prescribed width along base lines running
between the Initial Meridians. A base line is a line approximating a
latitude circle from which townships are projected north and south to the
correction lines (to be defined later). See figure above to the right.
Base lines are four townships apart. The international boundary is the
first base line; the second base line lies between townships four and
five; the third base line between townships eight and nine; and so on
northerly in regular order. For example, the fourteenth base line (between
townships fifty-two and fifty-three) runs along part of Jasper Avenue in
Edmonton, and the twenty-fourth base line (between townships ninety-two
and ninety-three) runs near the Syncrude plant north of Fort McMurray.
Correction lines are east-west lines, midway between base lines, on
which the jogs are allowed to provide for convergence of meridians, as
shown in figure above to the right. They are also four townships apart.
The first correction line is between townships two and three; the second
between townships six and seven; the third between townships ten and
eleven, and so on northerly in regular order. For example, the twelfth
correction line (between townships forty-six and forty-seven) runs through
Camrose, and the twenty-third correction line (between townships ninety and ninety-one) runs just north
of Fort MacKay. The north boundary of Alberta is about the thirty-second
correction line. The jogs along a correction line increase in length as
one proceeds westerly from an Initial Meridian. For example, on the 14th
correction line running through Namao north of Edmonton, the jog at the
northeast comer of range ten is about 36.23 Chains (2390.8 feet = 728.7
metres), whereas the jog at the northeast comer of range twenty-five on
the same correction line is about 96.60 Chains (6375.6 feet = 1943.3
metres). On the east side of each Initial Meridian the width of the last
range is narrower than a full range due to the convergence between two
adjacent Initial Meridians. These fractional ranges are less than six
miles in width, the width varying with its position along the Initial
Meridian, as shown in the figure above to the right. Sections in a
fractional township are numbered the same as though the township was a
full one.
The Dominion Land Survey System therefore established a practical,
accurate solution to the subdivision of vast tracts of land in Western
Canada. The framework of meridians and base lines provided the basis for
township subdivision in the System. While readily understood and used by
early settlers and even by people today, it was highly technical and
complicated to layout while keeping errors under control. This required
skilled government surveyors (DLS) to accomplish. Based on lines of
latitude and longitude determined by astronomic field observations it
covered the largest tract of land ever surveyed in North America under a
single integrated system.
Township surveys subdivided the Crown land into parcels which could be
sold for settlement, development and other public purposes. The figure
above (on the left)
shows the structure of a typical township of the Third System of Survey
(the First and Second Systems, which differed mainly in allotment and
width of road allowances, were laid out in southern Manitoba and
south-eastern Saskatchewan up to about 1881; after that, the remainder of
the Prairie Provinces was subdivided according to the Third System of
Survey). North-south road allowances run every mile apart; east-west road
allowances are spaced at two mile intervals. Each township contains three
blind lines (east-west section lines where no road allowance is provided -
called "blind lines" because they were not measured on the earlier
surveys). Distances shown on the early township plans are in Chains, and
areas are shown in acres. These British (Imperial) units have been
retained for most township plans even after the metric system was adopted
in Canada in 1971.
Each section is one mile on a side, or 80 Chains square
(approximately), containing 640 acres. A Third System township therefore
measures approximately 486 Chains east-west and 483 Chains north-south.
Road allowances provide public access to each quarter- section. Sections
are sometimes broken down into smaller units called legal subdivisions of
40 acres each; each section contains 16 legal subdivisions as shown in
figure above to the right. These smaller tracts are used for smaller
divisions of land bordering on rivers and lakes, Indian reserves,
settlements, and for oil and gas well spacing units.
The
introduction of the Torrens land registration system in Alberta, effective
January 1, 1887, was made possible by the accuracy of the original
township and settlement surveys and the careful collection and
preservation of survey plans. The Torrens System was devised in
Australia by Sir Robert Torrens in 1858, and is one of the most efficient
land titles systems in the world. A government land titles office
has custody of all original land titles and documents registered against
them (such as mortgages, caveats and liens), thus guaranteeing the title
and protecting it from fraud and wrongful possession. The Torrens
system remains in use to this day for all dealings with land ownership,
leasing, and related records at the Edmonton and Calgary land titles
offices in Alberta, giving citizens ready access to all important land
titles information related to buying, selling, and holding property. |