Although these lands produced bountiful
harvests during years of good rainfall, creating large sums of new wealth for Canada, crop
failures and a serious water shortage occurred when rainfall was below normal. Such a dry period
occurred around the turn of the century, then 1910 was a very dry year and 1914 another.
Drought
struck
again in 1917, 1918 and 1919. In these years, the federal government had to supply seed grain
and provide relief to the needy farmers.
In 1870 the government of the Dominion of Canada negotiated with the Hudson's Bay Company for the surrender of its entitlement to Rupert's Land, which was then incorporated as the Northwest Territories. Two years later, the Dominion Lands Act established that settlers could secure title to a quarter-section (64.8 hectares) of these newly acquired lands, on payment of a $10 fee and residence of three years. However, to promote a more rapid settlement of the Territories, it was necessary to encourage the construction of railroads. Certain lands were granted by the government to railroad companies for such undertakings. The railways needed only to select those lands which were "fairly fit for settlement".
Consequently, in 1880 the government entered into an agreement with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). This syndicate was chartered to link Montreal with the Pacific coast by an all-Canadian route, in exchange for $25 million in cash and 10.1 million hectares of land to construct such a railway. The land grant included alternate sections on each side of the railway, 1.6 kilometres wide and 38.6 kilometres in depth. The railway was completed in 1885.
The completion of the east-west Canadian Pacific Railway and incentives offered by the federal government contributed to a massive land rush into the West. This involved not only experienced eastern Canadian farmers, immigrants in search of security, but also speculators. At this particular time, the area was experiencing one of its recurring series of wet years.
Some government officials were optimistic about the potential of this rapid settlement onto lands where they believed the soil, mineral resources and climate to be the best in the world. However, the availability of water was a problem in parts of the region. When Captain John Palliser had explored the area for the British government in 1857, he identified a large portion of the southern Prairies as being too dry to support agricultural settlement. Known as the "Palliser Triangle", this area coincided closely with the lands which would later be devastated by the drought of the 1930's. The same area was studied for the Canadian Pacific Railway during the wet period of 1870 by Professor John Macoun who disagreed with Palliser's findings. Presumably, much of the early settlement on the Prairies can be attributed to Macoun's analysis and encouragement.
The next decade, known as the "Dirty Thirties", staggered both provincial and federal governments. At this time, the Prairies experienced the most severe and prolonged drought since the beginning of settlement. The drought, combined with a world-wide economic depression, caused grain farmers throughout much of the Prairies to become dependent on others for even the barest necessities of life. They were forced to accept relief to procure seed, feed, fuel, food and clothing to sustain their farms and families.
As a result of climatic conditions, it was inevitable that new settlers moving to the prairies should make some mistakes and experience difficulties in becoming established, particularly at the outset when there were no precedents to follow in developing suitable methods of farming. With rapid settlement, many farmers homesteaded on land that should have never been farmed.
The government's attempts to save and later rebuild western agriculture led to the establishment in 1935 of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) and increased government assistance to both irrigation and dryland farmers in the West. PFRA assisted in the resettlement of many farm families to areas where they could continue farming. Most of the early resettlement were to locations near irrigation projects. The Eastend, Val Marie and West Val Marie dams in southwest Saskatchewan provided water for livestock, irrigation and domestic uses for farm families relocated nearby. These dams were completed in 1939.
In Alberta, about 38 families were initially resettled to the Rolling Hills irrigation area in 1939,
taking with them 70 rail cars full of goods. In 1952, farmers began resettling the Hays District of
the Bow River irrigation project. Resettlement of 162 families to the district was completed in
1959. In total 5,000 families were resettled by PFRA to new lands in the same municipality or to
irrigation projects in Saskatchewan and Alberta by 1962. For more information, visit the resettlement pages.