As you navigate to various fields, you will have to contend with legal descriptions such as SW 12-6-3E or RL 19 Rat River Parish. Manitoba has two different way of providing legal descriptions for farm land: the older river lot system imported from Quebec and the Dominion Land Survey method used for most of the rest of the Prairies.
The river lot system used by the original French, Métis, and Scottish settlers was based around the use of river as primary means of transport and communication. By using long narrow strips of land, each landowner could be assured of access to the river. This system was also used in Quebec. The problem with the river lot system is that it largely ignores land farther away from rivers and it leads to lots of vastly different sizes.
River Lots near Ste Anne (from MLI)
In the 1870s, the Government of Canada carried out the Dominion Land Survey and mapped the prairies as large squares called townships. Townships start at the US border and go north. In Manitoba,we have one meridian line and so each township is described as being a certain number of townships east or west of the meridian. The square townships are six miles long by six miles wide and thus contain 36 smaller squares within them. The smaller squares are called sections. Each section is commonly divided into quarters of 160 acres, labeled NW, SW, SE, and NE.
Section grid sketch
Thus a legal description such as SW 12-6-3E means the southwest quarter of section 12 in the 6th township north of the US/Canadian border and the 3rd township east of the meridian.
A part of the Dominion Land Survey (convergence of meridians exaggerated). The shaded township is Township 17, Range 8 west of the Third Meridian. From Wikipedia
If you’re looking for Tone Ag Consulting’s office, you can find us using the older system at River Lot 19 Rat River Parish.
By the way, the division of land was a factor in the Riel Rebellion, so be careful when you read legal descriptions or you may stir up some serious trouble!
{ 2 } Trackbacks
[...] your way around southern Manitoba requires that you be able to read legal descriptions. A custom GIS map can be extremely helpful, so here’s one way of finding a given quarter [...]
[...] you’re trying to find a piece of land in Manitoba, you’re often given a field legal description. The first step in locating the land is to find the township it falls under. This [...]
Post a Comment