Marilyn has been rebuilding the quilt that grandma made to enter in a competition for the 1980 celebrations around Saskatchewan's 75th anniversary. Starting in 1871 The Dominion Land Survey divided most of western Canada into roughly 1 mile squares. (Roughly 1 mile squares because you can't lay multiple perfect squares onto a spherical world.) Those squares which we call sections are grouped into six mile square townships consisting of 36 sections. The provinces were divided into a grid represented by east-west ranges relative to meridians of longitude and north-south townships which count up from 1 along the US border to around 80 in the Peace River region. The individual sections within a six mile square township are numbered in a specific non-intuitive pattern starting in the bottom right corner.
Based on this grid and the location of a section of land within the township, every 1 mile square in western Canada can be represented by its section number followed by the township number followed by the range. For example, our land east of Nipawin was on Sec 34 Twp 50 Range 14
West of the 2nd Meridian of Longitude or 34-50-14-W2. Within the section a further subdivision is made based on the 4 quarters of the section so we were actually on the NW34-50-14-W2.
5% of the land in western Canada was granted to the Hudsons Bay Company when the land was turned over to Canada. That was accomplished by giving the Bay all of Section 8 and 3/4 of Section 26.¹ This led to those sections often being referred to locally as "the Hudson Bay land" long after they were no longer owned by the Hudsons Bay Company. Similarly Sections 11 and 29 were designated as school land with the proceeds from their initial sale going to fund the early schools.
The survey pattern made allowances for roads which would be built after settlement. Those allowances became known as "road allowances" even in the case where roads were never actually built along the alloted area. As you travel east to west across the prairies the road allowances generally are spaced 1 mile apart. As you travel north and south the road allowances are two miles apart.
The township was the foundation for a lot of early prairie life. Travelling across two or three townships was a big deal when roads were few and most travel was by horses. Grandma's quilt uses the 36 sections in a township as a metaphor for prairie development. Starting at section 1 the quilt follows the development of the prairie landscape as she saw it during her lifetime. So in the lower right of the quilt we start with undisturbed nature, then the aboriginal tenants of the prairies and then follow the arrival of the settlers through to modern 20th century development. The Hudsons Bay land and the school sections are identified as are the road allowances.
When we inherited the quilt we decided to use it. Nobody beyond my generation will be able to remember my grandmother. The quilt means something to us so we intend to appreciate it by using it. It is a great conversation piece when people tour the bus but it was getting in pretty rough shape. And it was getting dirty because it was in too poor of condition to wash it. So Marilyn has tackled resewing all the appliques and redoing the quilting. She is also doing it with invisible thread which is making the task that much more difficult. Now that the weather has smartened up she is making better time on the project.
¹In the interest of perfect accuracy, the HBC grant also included one quarter out of Section 26 in those townships whose numbers were evenly divisible by 5. This was done in order to ensure that HBC received exactly 5% of the land grant.
31 32 33 34 35 36
30 29 28 27 26 25
19 20 21 22 23 24
18 17 16 15 14 13
07 08 09 10 11 12
06 05 04 03 02 01
Based on this grid and the location of a section of land within the township, every 1 mile square in western Canada can be represented by its section number followed by the township number followed by the range. For example, our land east of Nipawin was on Sec 34 Twp 50 Range 14
West of the 2nd Meridian of Longitude or 34-50-14-W2. Within the section a further subdivision is made based on the 4 quarters of the section so we were actually on the NW34-50-14-W2.5% of the land in western Canada was granted to the Hudsons Bay Company when the land was turned over to Canada. That was accomplished by giving the Bay all of Section 8 and 3/4 of Section 26.¹ This led to those sections often being referred to locally as "the Hudson Bay land" long after they were no longer owned by the Hudsons Bay Company. Similarly Sections 11 and 29 were designated as school land with the proceeds from their initial sale going to fund the early schools.
The survey pattern made allowances for roads which would be built after settlement. Those allowances became known as "road allowances" even in the case where roads were never actually built along the alloted area. As you travel east to west across the prairies the road allowances generally are spaced 1 mile apart. As you travel north and south the road allowances are two miles apart.
The township was the foundation for a lot of early prairie life. Travelling across two or three townships was a big deal when roads were few and most travel was by horses. Grandma's quilt uses the 36 sections in a township as a metaphor for prairie development. Starting at section 1 the quilt follows the development of the prairie landscape as she saw it during her lifetime. So in the lower right of the quilt we start with undisturbed nature, then the aboriginal tenants of the prairies and then follow the arrival of the settlers through to modern 20th century development. The Hudsons Bay land and the school sections are identified as are the road allowances.
When we inherited the quilt we decided to use it. Nobody beyond my generation will be able to remember my grandmother. The quilt means something to us so we intend to appreciate it by using it. It is a great conversation piece when people tour the bus but it was getting in pretty rough shape. And it was getting dirty because it was in too poor of condition to wash it. So Marilyn has tackled resewing all the appliques and redoing the quilting. She is also doing it with invisible thread which is making the task that much more difficult. Now that the weather has smartened up she is making better time on the project.
¹In the interest of perfect accuracy, the HBC grant also included one quarter out of Section 26 in those townships whose numbers were evenly divisible by 5. This was done in order to ensure that HBC received exactly 5% of the land grant.
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