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46-639: Saltfleet Township is a geographic township in Hamilton , Ontario , Canada , on the south shore of Lake Ontario . The township was established originally in the then Upper Canada . In 1974, it was amalgamated with the village of Stoney Creek to form the town of Stoney Creek. Stoney Creek itself was amalgamated with the City of Hamilton in 2001. 43°12′00″N 79°43′03″W  /  43.20000°N 79.71750°W  / 43.20000; -79.71750 Township (Canada)#Ontario In Eastern Canada ,

92-707: A CA$ 10 fee for a quarter section of his choice. If after three years he had cultivated 30 acres (12 ha) and had built a house (often just a sod house ), he gained title to the quarter. Homesteads were available as late as the 1950s, but the bulk of the settlement of the Prairies was 1885 to 1914. Legal surveys conducted before and after the Dominion Land Survey grid was laid out often have their own legal descriptions and delineations. Early settlement lots still retain their own original legal descriptions, but often have townships superimposed over them for

138-540: A township is one form of the subdivision of a county . In Quebec, the term is canton in French. The historic colony of Nova Scotia (present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick , and Prince Edward Island ) used the term township as a subdivision of counties and as a means of attracting settlers to the colony. In Prince Edward Island, the colonial survey of 1764 established 67 townships, known as lots, and 3 royalties, which were grouped into parishes and hence into counties;

184-475: A district, i.e. in Northern Ontario ). A township municipality may consist of a portion of one or more geographic townships united as a single entity with a single municipal administration. Often rural counties are subdivided into townships. In some places, usually if the township is in a county rather than in a regional municipality , the head of a political township may be called a " reeve ", not

230-606: A mayor. However, the distinction is changing as many rural townships are replacing the title with "mayor" to reduce confusion. A few townships keep both titles and designate "mayor" as the head of the municipal council and use "reeve" to denote the representative to the upper tier (usually county) council. The term "geographic township" is also used in reference to former political townships that were abolished or superseded as part of municipal government restructuring. In Quebec , townships are called cantons in French and can also be political and geographic, similar to Ontario although

276-591: A particular quarter section is "the Northeast Quarter of Section 20, Township 52, Range 25 west of the Fourth Meridian", abbreviated "NE-20-52-25-W4." A section may also be split into as many as 16 legal subdivisions (LSDs). LSDs are commonly used by the oil and gas industry as a precise way of locating wells, pipelines, and facilities. LSDs can be "quarter-quarter sections" (square land parcels roughly 1 ⁄ 4  mi [400 m] on

322-647: A party of Metis symbolically stepped on a survey chain, beginning the Red River Resistance . Work resumed in 1871; however, the system was redesigned to use 6-mile townships with 640-acre sections based on a suggestion from Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories William McDougall , who advocated that most of the settlers would come from the United States, so it was "advisable to offer them lots of

368-527: A political unit called a rural municipality in general is 3 townships by 3 townships in size, or 18 miles squared, about 324 square miles (840 km ). Three municipalities in British Columbia , Langley , Esquimalt and Spallumcheen , have "township" in their official names but legally hold the status of district municipalities . Dominion Land Survey The Dominion Land Survey ( DLS ; French: arpentage des terres fédérales, ATF )

414-595: A side, comprising roughly 40 acres [160,000 m ] in area)—but this is not necessary. Many are other fractions of a section (a half-quarter section—roughly 80 acres [320,000 m ] in area is common). LSDs may be square, rectangular, and occasionally even triangular. LSDs are numbered as follows (north at top): Occasionally, resource companies assign further divisions within LSDs such as "A, B, C, D, etc." for example, to distinguish between multiple sites within an LSD. These in no way constitute an official change to

460-521: A single integrated system. The first formal survey done in western Canada was by Peter Fidler in 1813. The inspiration for the Dominion Land Survey System was the plan for Manitoba (and later Saskatchewan and Alberta) to be agricultural economies. With a large number of European settlers arriving, Manitoba was undergoing a large change so grasslands and parklands were surveyed, settled, and farmed. The Dominion Land Survey system

506-507: A size to which they have been accustomed." The Dominion Land Survey System still differed from the Public Land System because it contained road allowances. The Dominion Land Survey was enormous. Around 178,000,000 acres (720,000 km ) are estimated to have been subdivided into quarter sections, 27 million of which were surveyed by 1883 (14 years after the system's inception). The amount of work undertaken between 1871 and 1930

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552-660: Is at 49° north , which forms much of the Canada–United States border in the West. Each subsequent baseline is about 24 miles (39 km) to the north of the previous one, terminating at 60° north , which forms the boundary with Yukon , the Northwest Territories , and Nunavut . Starting at each intersection of a meridian and a baseline and working west (also working east of the First Meridian and

598-476: Is given justice by the amount of paperwork submitted: the maps, plans, and memos transferred by the Canadian government to the provinces filled approximately 200 railway cars. This did not include closed or dormant files, which would fill 9,000 filing cabinets and weigh about 227 tons. Until very recently , surveying to take distance and angular measurements was done with manually controlled instruments. Distance

644-469: Is slightly shorter than the south. Only along the baselines do townships have their nominal width from east to west. The two townships to the north of a baseline gradually narrow as one moves north, and the two to the south gradually widen as one moves south. Halfway between two base lines, wider-than-nominal townships abut narrower-than-nominal townships. The east and west boundaries of these townships therefore do not align, and north–south roads that follow

690-668: Is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km ) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout of the Public Land Survey System used in the United States , but has several differences. The DLS is the dominant survey method in the Prairie provinces , and it is also used in British Columbia along the Railway Belt (near the main line of

736-582: Is the reason base lines are not exactly 24 miles (39 km) apart. In townships surveyed from 1871 to 1880 (most of southern Manitoba, part of southeastern Saskatchewan and a small region near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan), there are road allowances of 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 chains (30 m) surrounding every section. In townships surveyed from 1881 to the present, road allowances are reduced both in width and in number. They are 1 chain (20 m) wide and run north–south between all sections; however, there are only three east–west road allowances in each township, on

782-614: The Manitoba Act as they had been promised in 1870. In the case of the closely clustered settlements of Edmonton, St. Albert, and Fort Saskatchewan in the Alberta District, a militant "settlers' rights" movement developed which demanded action from the federal government to grant the settlers legal title to their land and to end claim jumping . The movement even resorted to vigilante action against suspected claim jumpers. Most of these grievances were resolved by 1885, which

828-706: The Canadian Pacific Railway ), and in the Peace River Block in the northeast of the province. (Although British Columbia entered Confederation with control over its own lands, unlike the Northwest Territories and the Prairie provinces, British Columbia transferred these lands to the federal Government as a condition of the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The federal government then surveyed these areas under

874-648: The Prairie Provinces and parts of British Columbia , a township is a division of the Dominion Land Survey . Townships are (mostly) 6-by-6-mile (9.7 by 9.7 km) squares, about 36 square miles (93 km ) in area. The townships are not political units (although political boundaries often follow township boundaries) but exist only to define parcels of land relatively simply. Townships are divided into 36 equal 1-by-1-mile (1.6 by 1.6 km) square parcels, known as "sections." In Saskatchewan ,

920-557: The 1800s. They are used primarily for geographic purposes, such as land surveying, natural resource exploration and tracking of phenomena such as forest fires or tornados , but are not political entities. Township municipalities, also called "political townships", are areas that have been incorporated with municipal governments, and are a lower-tier municipality (if located in a county or regional municipality , i.e. in Southern Ontario ) or single-tier municipality (if located in

966-459: The Canadian Pacific Railway was granted 25,000,000 acres (100,000 km ) for the construction of its first line from Ontario to the Pacific. These sections are colloquially called CPR sections regardless of the railway they were originally granted to. Sections 11 and 29 were school sections . When school boards were formed, they gained title to these sections, which were then sold to fund

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1012-541: The Coast Meridian ), nearly square townships were surveyed, whose north–south and east–west sides are about 6 miles (9.7 km) in length. There are two tiers of townships to the north and two tiers to the south of each baseline. Because the east and west edges of townships, called "range lines", are meridians of longitude , they converge towards the North Pole . Therefore, the north edge of every township

1058-591: The DLS.) The survey was begun in 1871, shortly after Manitoba and the North-West Territories became part of Canada, following the purchase of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company. Covering about 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 sq mi), the survey system and its terminology are deeply ingrained in the rural culture of the Prairies. The DLS is the world's largest survey grid laid down in

1104-544: The Dominion Land Survey marked a new era for western Canada. Railways were making their way to the West and the population of western regions began to increase. The introduction of the survey system marked the end of the nomadic ways for the First Nations and Metis. This did not go over well and was a catalyst to the events of the Red River Rebellion . Being a surveyor was not easy. The hours were long,

1150-409: The Dominion Land Survey system, but nonetheless often appear as part of the legal description. In summary, the hierarchy of the division of Western Canada went as follows: Between certain sections of a township run "road allowances" (but not all road allowances have an actual road built on them). The road allowances add to the size of the township (they do not cut down the size of the sections): this

1196-437: The Fourth Meridian," abbreviated "52-25-W4." In Manitoba, the First Meridian is the only one used, so the abbreviations are even more terse, e.g., "3-1-W" and "24-2-E.". In Manitoba legislation, the abbreviations WPM and EPM are used: "3-1 WPM" and "2N4-2 EPM". Every township is divided into 36 sections , each about 1 mile (1.6 km) square. Sections are numbered within townships in a boustrophedon pattern, beginning with

1242-611: The company exactly five per cent. Although the HBC sold all these sections long ago, they are still often locally called "the Bay section " today. Resulting in a " checkerboard pattern ", odd-numbered sections (except 11 and 29) were often used for railway land-grants. The Prairies could not be settled without railways, so the Dominion government habitually granted large tracts of land to railway companies as an incentive to build lines. Notably,

1288-637: The company when it transferred its claim over the West to Canada in 1870. The rights of the pre-DLS settlers was a major political issue in the West in the late nineteenth century. The settlers claimed squatters' rights over the land they had already farmed, but the sizes and boundaries of these farms were poorly defined, leading to frequent disputes. As well the Métis in the Southbranch settlements of Saskatchewan were particularly concerned with their land rights given that they had not been well protected by

1334-456: The continent, but were determined using 19th-century technology. The only truly accurate benchmarks at that time were near the prime meridian in Europe. Benchmarks in other parts of the world had to be calculated or estimated by the positions of the sun and stars. Consequently, although they were remarkably accurate for the time, today they are known to be several hundred metres in error. Before

1380-541: The deal that transferred Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada, the HBC retained five per cent of the "fertile belt" (south of the North Saskatchewan and Winnipeg rivers ). Therefore, Section 8 and three-quarters of Section 26 were assigned to the company. Additionally, the fourth quarter of Section 26 in townships whose numbers were divisible by five also belonged to the HBC in order to give

1426-782: The geographic use is not used much or at all. They were introduced after the British Conquest, primarily as a surveying unit. They were designated and cover most of the unattributed territory in Eastern Quebec and what is now known as the Eastern Townships and later used in surveying the Outaouais and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regions. Townships often served as the territorial basis for new municipalities, but township municipalities are no different from other types such as parish or village municipalities. In

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1472-525: The initial construction of schools. The rural school buildings were as often as not located on school sections; frequently, land trades were made between landowners and the school for practical reasons. The remaining quarter sections were available as homesteads under the provisions of the Dominion Lands Act , the federal government's plan for settling the North-West. A homesteader paid

1518-614: The north side of sections 7 to 12, 19 to 24 and 31 to 36. This results in a north–south road allowance every mile going west, and an east–west road allowance every two miles going north. This arrangement reduced land allocation for roads, but still provides road-access to every quarter-section. Road allowances are one of the differences between the Canadian DLS and the American Public Land Survey System , which leaves no extra space for roads. As part of

1564-522: The sake of convenience or for certain tasks. Urban developments superimpose new survey lots and plans over the older section and township grid also. Certain areas otherwise within the surveys' boundaries were not part of the survey grid, or not available for homesteading. These were Indian reserves , pre-existing "settlements" divided into " river lots " based on the French system used in Quebec, and lands around Hudson's Bay Company trading posts reserved for

1610-461: The southeast section (in contrast to the US which starts from the northeast), as follows (north at top): In turn, each section is divided into four quarter sections (square land parcels roughly 1 ⁄ 2  mi [800 m] on a side): southeast, southwest, northwest and northeast. This quarter-section description is primarily used by the agricultural industry. The full legal description of

1656-850: The survey system have to jog to the east or west. These east–west lines halfway between baselines are called "correction lines". Townships are designated by their "township number" and "range number". Township 1 is the first north of the First Baseline, and the numbers increase to the north. Range numbers recommence with Range 1 at each meridian and increase to the west (also east of First Meridian and Coast Meridian). On maps, township numbers are marked in Arabic numerals , but range numbers are often marked in Roman numerals ; however, in other contexts Arabic numerals are used for both. Individual townships are designated such as "Township 52, Range 25 west of

1702-413: The survey was even completed it was established that for the purposes of laws based on the survey, the results of the physical survey would take precedence over the theoretically correct position of the meridians. This precludes, for example, any basis for a boundary dispute between Alberta and Saskatchewan on account of surveying errors. The main east–west lines are the baselines . The First Baseline

1748-482: The time away from civilization was longer, and the elements were unforgiving. A survey party generally consisted of up to 20 members, which would include a party chief, chain men, a cook, people to saw trees, a recorder, and people to turn angles . All travel was either on horseback or by foot. To begin surveying a party chief would have to buy approximately $ 400 worth of instruments. These instruments included an alidade , dumpy level , theodolite , Gunter's chain (which

1794-401: The townships were geographically and politically the same. In New Brunswick, parishes have taken over as the present-day subdivision of counties, and present-day Nova Scotia uses districts as appropriate. In Ontario , there are both geographic townships and township municipalities. Geographic townships are the original historical administrative subdivisions surveyed and established primarily in

1840-563: Was developed because the farm name and field position descriptions used in northern Europe were not organized or flexible enough, and the township and concession system used in eastern Canada was not satisfactory. The first meridian was chosen at 97°27′28.4″ west longitude and was established in 1869. Another six meridians were established after. A number of places are excluded from the survey system: these include federal lands such as First Nation reserves, federal parks, and air weapon ranges. The surveys do not encroach on reserves because that land

1886-492: Was divided into five basic surveys. Each survey's layout was slightly different from the others. The first survey began in 1871 and ended in 1879 and covers some of southern Manitoba and a little of Saskatchewan. The second and smallest survey, in 1880, was used in only small areas of Saskatchewan. This system differs from the first survey because rather than running section lines parallel to the eastern boundary they run true north–south. The largest and most important of these surveys

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1932-563: Was established before the surveys began. When the Hudson's Bay Company relinquished its title to the Dominion on July 15, 1870, via the Deed of Surrender , it received Section 8 and all of Section 26 excluding the northeast quarter. These lands were gradually sold by the company and in 1984 they donated the remaining 5,100 acres (21 km ) to the Saskatchewan Wildlife Association . The surveying of western Canada

1978-527: Was measured using either a chain or more recently a transit or range finder. To turn angles, a theodolite was used. To find their location, they used astronomical observations, and to find elevation, levels and barometers were used. To see over long distances, towers were constructed from timber in flat and wooded areas. The most important north–south lines of the survey are the meridians : The meridians were determined by painstaking survey observations and measurements, and in reference to other benchmarks on

2024-558: Was replaced by a steel tape), and a solar compass or a vernier compass. The Dominion Land Survey system was proposed in 1869 by John Stoughton Dennis . The initial plan, though based on the square townships of the American Public Lands Survey System , involved 9-mile townships divided into sixty-four 800-acre sections consisting of four 200-acre lots each. Work to establish the first meridian and few township outlines began and quickly ended in 1869 when

2070-562: Was the third, which covers more land than all the others surveys put together. This survey began in 1881. That method of surveying is still used in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The fourth and fifth surveys were used only in some townships in British Columbia. The reason that the Canadian government was pushing to subdivide Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta was to affirm Canadian sovereignty over these lands. The United States

2116-533: Was undergoing rapid expansion in the 1860s, and the Canadian government was afraid that the Americans would expand into Canadian territory. Canada's introduction of a railway and surveying was a means to discourage American encroachment. Sir John A. Macdonald remarked in 1870 that the Americans "are resolved to do all they can short of war, to get possession of our western territory, and we must take immediate and vigorous steps to counteract them." The beginning of

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