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Canada. Department of the Interior
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Dominion timber berth administration files

  • GR-1499
  • Series
  • 1896-1932

The series consists of Dominion Lands Branch timber berth administration files created by the Canadian Department of the Interior from 1896 to 1932. Timber berths were an area based system of timber tenure established by the Dominion (Federal) Government in 1872. Most of the records are on microfilm and arranged by land district and section. Records from the following land districts are included: New Westminster, Kamloops and Revelstoke.

The series also includes several paper files of similar records which were likely transferred to the custody of the Provincial government after the return of the railway belt. The records are primarily homestead inspection reports for timber berths. Other records include correspondence, applications, statistics on timber volumes and maps. The records are in no discernable order; they contain a variety of dates, names and timber berth numbers. Some of these records may be duplicated on the microfilm in this series.

Canada. Department of the Interior

Dominion timber berth licenses

  • GR-1500
  • Series
  • 1931-1951

The series consists of Dominion Lands Branch timber berth licenses created by the Canadian Department of the Interior from 1931 to 1951.

Canada. Department of the Interior

Dominion timber marks register

  • GR-1501
  • Series
  • 1949-1954

The series consists of a timber mark register created by the Canadian Department of the Interior from 1949-1954.

Canada. Department of the Interior

Electoral atlas of the Dominion of Canada according to the Redistribution Act of 1914 and the Amending Act of 1915

Item consists of one bound atlas measuring 38 x 30.5 cm. It contains 240 Canadian electoral maps for 1915. The volume is arranged according to nine provinces (Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and Alberta) and the Yukon Territory. Provincial sections begin with an index map followed by coloured maps for each electoral district. There is no index map for the Yukon, but an additional index map for Montreal Island brings the volume total to 240 maps. Index maps depict the boundaries of each numbered electoral district (1-230). Electoral district maps vary in scale and include the districts' population as of the 1911 census. Some district maps include riding descriptions and some list urban centres by name according to their status as a city, township, town, village, municipality, ward, or parish.

Honorable Louis Coderre, Secretary of State and J.G. Foley, Clk. of the Crown in Chancery are listed on the inside cover page. The inside cover is inscribed in black ink with: "M. Peters copy, to be kept in elect. dist. map room". "1915" is written in red pencil across the front cover.

Canada. Department of the Interior

Kamloops Government Agent land records

  • GR-0522
  • Series
  • 1877-1977

The series consists of the business records, 1877-1977, of the office of the Kamloops Government Agent, including the records of several additional positions usually held by the same individual: Gold Commissioner, Mining Recorder, and Land Commissioner for the Kamloops Land District. The series also includes records of the Canadian Department of the Interior; most created and received by the Dominion Lands Agent at Kamloops as part of the administration of the Railway Belt.

Record types and subject matter include, but are not limited to the following: land alienation through pre-emption or purchase from the provincial government and homesteading or purchase from the federal government; a variety of leases of Crown land; other more general types of records; and records regarding Indigenous peoples and Indian Reserves.

Records related to land alienation include: applications for pre-emption records; land classification reports; forms completed by land inspectors of the Department of Lands Inspection Branch; declarations of occupation and permanent improvement on pre-emption claims; applications for homestead entry, cancellation, and abandonment; homestead Inspector’s reports; affidavits in support of an Application for Entry for a homestead, pre-emption or purchased homestead; land sales records including applications to purchase and certificates of purchase.

Records related to a variety of leases and other uses of Crown lands include: grazing leases; foreshore leases; dredging leases; indentures to reassign leases; special use permits; timber permits; water records including conditional water licenses, and permanent water licenses; applications for irrigation schemes; petroleum and natural gas leases; quarry leases; bar leases; coal leases; mining leases regarding surface and subsurface rights; applications for lease of crown-granted mineral claims; applications for placer leases under the Placer-Mining Act; and the lapse of a lease or forfeiture of a mineral claim to the Crown.

Other more general types of records include: correspondence regarding Crown grants; inquiries about land availability; surveyor’s reports; preliminary plans and correspondence for the surveys of townships; Soldier Settlement Board records including forms, correspondence and records of soldier land grants; attestation papers and discharge certificates; naturalization papers; personal correspondence; correspondence files on specific topics such as hay permit regulations or precipitation measurements; records regarding taxes; and business records of the office, including inter-department correspondence, circulars, and memorandum related to matters of land administration.

Files also exist for specific Indian Reserves, and can include correspondence; water records; surveys; and inspection reports created in the process of allotting new, and canceling existing Indian Reserves. Some files document instances of overlapping land use and conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples on specific parcels of land.

Files are generally either correspondence files on a particular subject, or a variety of records related to a particular piece of land. Many files cover a wide time period and may be associated with multiple individuals or companies as land rights were often transferred to others or cancelled and reapplied for. Only the name of the first and last individual listed on the file is included in the file list. This means there may be additional names associated with files not included on the file list. The file list may also only include part of the legal description of land in cases where the description was exceptionally long, or included many different pieces of land. Single individuals may also have multiple files for each piece of land they are associated with.

Cartographic materials, consisting of blueprints and hand-drawn maps or plans, indicating the parcels of land relevant to the file, are commonly found throughout the records.

No file list or indexes were transferred with these records from the Kamloops Government Agent. Most files only included numbers with no clear names, so titles were created by the archives based on the contents of the files or by transcribing information on relevant file backs.

A fire on 17 September 1893 at the Dominion Lands Office in Kamloops destroyed some files. The contents for these files are marked [empty]. Files marked as [file back only] were likely destroyed in the fire, but then had their titles and some additional information transcribed by Lands employees onto file backs from letter books or other surviving records which were not transferred with these records.

British Columbia. Government Agent (Kamloops)

Land settlement records for Peace River block

  • GR-1656
  • Series
  • 1918-1945

The series consists of seven files created by the Department of the Interior at the Pouce Coupe Dominion Lands Office. These files relate to Peace River block land and seem to be applications for land grants started in the Grande Prairie, Alberta Dominion Lands Office before being transferred to the Pouce Coupe office.

File 10617, 1923
File 15243, 1930
File 16652, 1930
File 16654, 1930
File 16656, 1930

There are also two files numbered 0319000 (old file numbers 6875 and 1547) which relate to the settlement of World War I veteran soldiers in Townships 78 and 79, Range 18, West of the 18th meridian.

Canada. Department of the Interior

Land settlement records for Railway Belt and Peace River Block

  • GR-0436
  • Series
  • 1885-1949

This series consists of correspondence, applications for homestead entry, application for patents, and registers relating to land settlement in the Railway Belt and the Peace River Block.

GR-0436 is arranged into three series:
Series 1, BC Lands Files
Series 2, Index Maps and Township General Registers
Series 3, Homestead Grant Registers

Canada. Department of the Interior

Land surveys relating to the Railway Belt and Peace River Block

  • GR-0437
  • Series
  • 1885-1930

This series consists of correspondence files relating to surveys in British Columbia including:
68 boxes of files, mostly numbered chronologically, which contain branch correspondence with a particular surveyor for a season;
27 boxes of files relating to surveys of quarter sections in the Railway Belt and the Peace River Block. These files are arranged in order of their township, range, and meridian numbers, working from east to west. Peace River Block files are placed at the end of the series (boxes 24-27); and
6 boxes of Dominion Land Surveyors' diaries (146 volumes). Most of these diaries cover surveys along the CPR mainline.

Canada. Department of the Interior

[Maps of] B.C. Railway Belt, corrected to Nov. 1st 1907

Item consists of one bound album measuring 41 x 55 cm. It contains maps of the Railway Belt of BC in 1907 prepared by James White, F.R.G.S., Geographer, under the direction of R.E. Young, D.L.S., Superintendent of Railway and Swamp Lands for the Dominion Department of the Interior. Each map depicts trails; trails surveyed; post offices; railway stations; range numbers; township numbers; homesteads patented and homesteads entered for and unpatented; sales, special grants, mining land sales; lands disposed of by provincial government; forest reserves and parks; timber berths; and (First Nation) reserves. Each also includes a diagram "shewing subdivision of townships".

The special edition maps "showing lands disposed of" include: Port Moody and Yale sheet (west of sixth and seventh meridians), Kamloops and Lytton sheet (west of sixth and seventh meridians), Sicamous sheet (west of sixth meridian), and Donald sheet (west of fifth meridian).

Canada. Department of the Interior

New Westminster Land Commissioner files

  • GR-4121
  • Series
  • 1882-1978

This series consists of records related to the administration, management and alienation of land in the New Westminster land district from 1882-1978. The records were primarily created by the provincial Government Agent and the Dominion Land Agent stationed in New Westminster. The majority of these records are homestead files created by the dominion government. These files contain information about homesteaders, their applications and the process of obtaining title to land.

Record types and subject matter include, but are not limited to: land alienation through pre-emption or purchase from the provincial government and homesteading or purchase from the federal government; a variety of leases of Crown land; other general subject files; and records regarding Indigenous Peoples or Indian Reserves.

Records related to land alienation include: applications for pre-emption, purchase or lease; land classification reports; forms completed by land inspectors of the Department of Lands Inspection Branch; declarations of occupation and permanent improvement on pre-emption claims; applications for homestead entry, cancellation, and abandonment; homestead Inspector’s reports; affidavits in support of an Application for Entry; land sales records; correspondence with settlers and other government officials; patents; Crown Grants; certificates; forms; maps and plans; financial records including receipts and cheques; court records, such as probates; survey records; notices of sale or cancellation; and sale agreements.

Records related to leases and other uses of Crown land include: grazing leases; foreshore leases; dredging leases; special use permits; timber permits; timber berths; water licenses; applications for dyking schemes; campsite leases; oyster bed leases; right-of-ways (ROWs) through land for railways, roads, powerlines or pipelines; petroleum and natural gas leases; quarry leases; bar leases; coal leases; mining leases; and mineral claims. Other uses include government reserves, the establishment of parks, and the reservation of land for school sites or other public uses.

Other more general subject files include: inquiries about land availability; preliminary plans and correspondence for the survey and sale of townsites; Soldier Settlement Board records including forms, correspondence and records of soldier land grants; correspondence files on specific topics such as canal construction, the reclamation of Hatzic Lake, the draining of Sumas Lake and the establishment of fish culture and fish hatcheries; and business records of the office, including inter-department correspondence, circulars, and memorandum related to matters of land administration.

Files also exist for specific Indian Reserves, and can include correspondence; water records; surveys; and inspection reports created in the process of allotting new, and canceling or amending existing Indian Reserves. Some files document instances of overlapping land use and conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples on specific parcels of land.

Files are generally either correspondence files on a particular subject, or a variety of records related to a particular piece of land. Many files cover a wide time period and may be associated with multiple individuals or companies, as land rights were often transferred to others or cancelled and reapplied for.

Only the name of the first individual listed on the file is included in the file list. This means there may be additional names associated with files not included on the file list. The file list may also only include part of the legal description of land in cases where the description was exceptionally long, or included many different pieces of land. Single individuals may also have multiple files for each piece of land they are associated with.

The series also includes some files related to land in the Yale Division and Kamloops Division of the Yale Land District; as well as the Lillooet Land District. These records were created in the offices of the Kamloops and Clinton Government Agents, but at some point became intermingled with the New Westminster records.

Maps, plans and sketches indicating the parcels of land relevant to the file are commonly found throughout the records.

British Columbia. Government Agent (New Westminster)

New Westminster Land Commissioner record books

  • GR-4122
  • Series
  • 1859-1980

This series consists of a variety of bound volumes related to the administration, management and alienation of land in the New Westminster land district from 1858-1980. The records were primarily created by the provincial Government Agent and the Dominion Land Agent stationed in New Westminster. The records have been arranged into the following subseries:

  1. Indexes and maps.

The indexes cover many of the homestead files in GR-4121, by file number and alphabetically by name of the homesteader or licensee. There are two volumes of reference maps for various municipalities, sub-divisions, right-of-ways and townships.

  1. BC government land registers : district lot system

Variations of this system of surveying land were used from 1859 onwards. All of these volumes appear to have been created and maintained by the BC government. The registers list the lots in numerical order and record the alienation of land from the Crown by purchase, pre-emption, lease, mineral claims, timber use, etc. Information may include the name of the purchaser, dates and numbers of certificates issued (including Crown Grants), dates and amounts of payments, and reference numbers to correspondence files and field books. There is an alphabetical name index in most volumes. The registers cover range 1 Coast District, range 4 Coast District, Yale Division Yale District (YDYD) country lands, Texada Island District, Point Grey townsite, Powell River townsite, Hastings townsite, and New Westminster District group 1, group 2 and 3 group 3.

  1. BC government land registers : township system

Variations of this survey system were used from 1873 to approximately 1912. All of these volumes appear to have been created and maintained by the BC government. The land entered in the majority of the volumes was surveyed and made available for settlement in 1873 and 1874. The registers list land in numerical order by Sections within Townships and record the alienation of land from the Crown by purchase, pre-emption, lease, etc. Information may include the name of the purchaser, dates and numbers of certificates issued (including Crown Grants), dates and amounts of payments, and reference numbers to correspondence files and field books. There is an alphabetical name index in most volumes. The registers cover New Westminster District townships 1 to 50 with some townships missing.

  1. Dominion government : general land registers

These volumes were likely created by the Dominion Land Agent. It appears that at least some records were copied from provincial records to determine what land had been alienated before the transfer of the Railway Belt and what Crown land still needed to be managed by the dominion government. The registers, arranged by legal description, indicate the nature of the grant, the number, date of entry, file number, patent approval date, and name of grantee. The registers cover various townships in the New Westminster District and various lots throughout the Hope district, Yale district, Kamloops district, town of Hope, town of Yale, and Boston Bar.

  1. Lease registers

These volumes were created in the New Westminster government agent's office. They record leases for a variety of purposes including: quarry, campsite, booming ground, agriculture, foreshore, forestry, and grazing. Many volumes are indexed and may include file numbers linking to GR-4121.

  1. Pre-emption records

These records were created by the BC government. Pre-emption was a system of obtaining title to unsurveyed land (similar to the Dominion "homesteading" system) which occurred until 1970. Individuals could purchase land which had not been fully surveyed. However, grants to these lands were not issued until the applicant had made specified improvements, passed inspections, satisfied residency requirements, and had the lands fully surveyed. Records include certificates of improvement for the Vancouver Divisions of the New Westminster District and Coast District; certificates of pre-emption for the New Westminster District and Vancouver Division; and registers of pre-emption records.

  1. Land purchase records

These records were created by the BC government. Once land was surveyed, it could be purchased outright instead of being pre-empted. These records include certificates of purchase for the New Westminster District.

  1. Mining records

The majority of these records were created by BC Government Agents, Gold Commissioners or Mining Recorders. Records include mineral claim minute books, records of conveyances, bills of sale, applications for mineral lands and petroleum and natural gas leases, and coal applications. Records are from the New Westminster District, Hope and Yale. Most volumes include an alphabetical index and some may include references to file numbers in GR-4121.

  1. Range and timber records

These records were created by the dominion and BC governments. Records include range leases, grazing leases and information on timber berths.

  1. Water licence applications

These records are water licence applications created by the BC government.

  1. Cancellation records

Cancellation registers created by the BC and Dominion governments. Some volumes include alphabetical indexes and have file numbers related to GR-4121.

  1. Financial records

Various financial records created by the Dominion government and BC Government Agents. Records include Dominion crown timber financial statements; form J (cash books) created by Government Agents documenting their expenses and fee collection, such as the sale of marriage licences; and a land revenue return of payments from the central Victoria land office.

  1. Other land administration records

Includes dominion created applications for patents and homestead inspectors instructions, as well as BC Government Agent books recording lands resumed under Soldier’s Homestead Act, Crown granted mineral claims which have reverted to the Crown for non-payment of taxes, and surveyed lands open for use.

British Columbia. Government Agent (New Westminster)

Records of mineral claims

  • GR-0229
  • Series
  • 1898

The file consists of records created by the Department of the Interior in 1898. The file contains mineral claims in the Atlin District of British Columbia recorded under Yukon mining regulations.

Canada. Department of the Interior

Records regarding the construction of Coquitlam Dam

  • GR-3964
  • Series
  • 1909-1916

This series consists of records related to the construction of a new dam at Coquitlam Lake Dam by Vancouver Power Co. Ltd., 1909-1916. Records cover the study and survey of Coquitlam Lake, and attaining approvals for plans, construction, and water use for producing electricity and as a municipal water supply. Records include correspondence, engineering reports and environmental reports.

At the time of construction, Coquitlam Lake was part of the Railway Belt and under the jurisdiction of the dominion government. All records are copies from Canadian Department of the Interior file 656216 nos. 3, 4, 5. The metal pin holding the file together was removed for conservation purposes and the records placed in archival folders. The copied file was likely provided to the Provincial Water Rights Branch for reference around the end of the file in 1913. There are also several loose pages of original records from the BC Comptroller of Water Rights, labelled with file number 8987 dating from 1913 to 1916.

British Columbia. Water Rights Branch

Records relating to surveys and the administration of gold commissioners

  • GR-1091
  • Series
  • 1897-1898

Series consists of records relating to surveys and the administration of gold commissioners with Yukon territory. Includes copies of correspondence and memoranda, as well as original correspondence of E. Deville, Surveyor-General of Canada.

Canada. Department of the Interior

Register of cancellations of pre-emption records

  • GR-0966
  • Series
  • 1890-1922

This series consists of two volumes of registers created by the Canadian government. Volume 1 is a register of cancellations of pre-emption records in the Railway Belt, British Columbia, 1890-1894. Volume 2 is a register recording land transactions with subagents in the Railway Belt, 1915-1922; including transactions in Enderby, Vernon, Armstrong and Salmon Arm.

Canada. Department of the Interior

Township plans showing lands applied for by Canadian Pacific Railway Company for right of way through Dominion lands from Port Moody to Savonas

Item consists of one bound album measuring 43 x 45 cm. It contains 57 township plans compiled in 1917 based on surveys conducted by numerous surveyors between 1861-1915. The plans range slightly in dimensions and show a variety of features such as Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) right of way, patented and unpatented homesteads, roads and trails, rivers and lakes, telegraph lines, [First Nation] reserves, lots, timber cover, and topography.

Maps include townships 14, 17, 20, 21, and 24 east of the Coast Meridian. Maps west of the Sixth Meridian are arranged by township (3, 5-21) and range (21-30). All maps were approved and confirmed by the Department of the Interior, Ottawa, Surveyor General, Édouard-Gaston Deville between 1904 and 1916.

Canada. Department of the Interior