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Archival description
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Geographic Series (1A - 1SW)

Geographic Series (1A - 1SW)

This series consists of a diverse range of maps including general maps of the entire province, general maps of large regions, and provincial and regional maps overlaid with various government administrative boundaries. The Geographic Series was continued by the successor to the Geographic Branch, the Map Production Division (1971 - 1981), which also published such related series *Date ranges given are those for the sheets held by BC Archives as the Special Geographical Series Maps, 1967 - 1980 and the Regional (New Series) Maps, 1978.

Land Series (2A - 2F)

Land Series (2A - 2F)

This series and the two following were designed primarily to show the status of land alienation. The Land Series sheets initially covered the settled southwestern area of the province and usually provided general geographic detail; fairly extensive cultural features such as transportation routes, parks, post offices, hospitals, telegraph lines, etc.; land district boundaries; limited topographic (landform) information in the form of spot heights, and depictions of the boundaries and numbers of surveyed lots pertaining to various forms of land title (crown grants, reserves, timber licences and leases), conveniently coded by colour. Later sheets in the series covered portions of the mainland coast, and the Queen Charlotte Islands. The series was published at the scale of four miles to one inch.

Pre Emptors' Series (3A - 3Q)

Pre-emptors' Series (3A - 3Q)

Originally intended as a quick means of depicting for settlers the Crown lands available for pre-emption in the north-central portion of the province, the first pre-emptors' maps were rough in form and were substantially redrawn each year. Since the early sheets were designed for short-term use, they provided only basic planimetric information (horizontal features such as rivers and lakes, but not landforms) along with depictions of the boundaries and numbers of surveyed lots, land recording district boundaries, government reserves, and of course, lands open for pre-emption or in some cases, public auction.

Even the early sheets, however, often also provide relatively detailed information on the location of trails, roads, and railways, and the popularity of the series as well as the increasing availability of accurate survey information for the mapped areas soon prompted the Geographic Branch to improve the maps' appearance, accuracy and level of detail.

Thus, while the scale, area covered, and numbering of the early sheets varied from year to year, the format of the series was standardized by 1915, with most sheets being published at a scale of three miles to one inch. Certain sheets eventually depicted topography by means of contours, and provided some of the types of more detailed cultural information present in the Lands and Degree Series.

Degree Series (4A - 4Q)

Degree Series (4A - 4Q)

This series was designed to cover the relatively well-settled area of the BC interior between the CPR line and the 49th parallel using standardized sheets of one degree in latitude and one in longitude. The maps were published at the comparatively large scale of two miles to the inch since they were intended to provide prospectors and other residents with accurate, long-term information on physical features; the location of land recording, mining, and/or electoral districts; the boundaries and numbers of surveyed lots (including timber leases), and specific cultural details such as the location of schools, hospitals, post offices, transportation routes, power lines, and so on. Many of the sheets are contoured so as to depict topography in detail.

Topographic Series (5A - 5E)

Topographic Series (5A - 5E)

This series was begun with the goal of depicting the results of exploratory topographic surveys (by Frank Cyril Swannell) in northern BC. The first sheets, therefore, provide planimetric information as well as topography in the form of hachures or contours, but depict few cultural details and are drawn at the relatively small scale of five miles to one inch.

Later sheets, however, covered parts of southern BC and include not only detailed topography, but also many of the same cultural features, presented at the same scales, as in the Lands and Degree Series. Interestingly, certain maps in the above series were produced as special "economic geography" editions containing numerous annotations regarding natural resources as well as extensive textual information on the verso (back) of the sheets. Such sheets, as well as those which simply contain extensive natural resource annotations, are identified in the accompanying lists by the entry "Economic Geography" after the map title. In addition to the series described above, a number of smaller or more specialized series are identified in the series lists.

Water rights plans : first sub-series

The sub-series contains many of the items received and produced by the main drafting office of the WRB in support of the Branch's investigation of early water records and administration of the licensing provisions of the Water Act. Included are sketch maps produced during the pre-1920 hydrographic surveys conducted for the Board of Investigation; contoured maps and plans accompanying the early surveys and reports of the regional engineers; detailed townsite plans showing proposed domestic waterworks; numerous items relating to major irrigation projects; and a wide variety of plans and drawings pertaining to proposed works such as flumes, ditches, pipelines, power installations, and dams.

Water rights plans : second sub-series

This sub-series is comprised of items transferred from the Water Rights Branch main drafting office to the WRB Power and Special Projects Division sometime after 1975. The Division was responsible for administering major water licences for hydro-electric power (including approval of plans, inspection of works during construction, and review of environmental studies); directing the operation of reservoirs for flood control; inspecting dams; and conducting a range of studies. Consequently, this sub-series contains numerous contour plans of reservoirs, drainage areas, and flood areas; plans, profiles and engineering drawings of proposed dams, constructed dams, power plants, and transmission line routes; and various detailed drawings of specific machine parts.

Water rights plans : third sub-series

The plans in this sub-series were removed from the main run of Water Rights Branch plans and transferred to the technical drafting section of the Water Investigations Branch (WIB). The WIB was formed in 1962 and given the responsibility for conducting water resources surveys: that is, for gathering hydrometeorological data and for undertaking engineering investigations pertaining to irrigation and domestic water supply, water power, stream erosion, flooding, and other concerns. Included are large numbers of plans prepared to accompany specific, numbered, water power investigation reports; plans of irrigation systems; river profiles and watershed plans; and hydrographs. Of special note is the sub-series' documentation of watersheds prior to dam construction and its depictions of coastal areas, including cannery sites.

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