CPR Land Sales: Canadian Prairie Agricultural Land Sales, 1881-1927

CPR Land Sales Tabular Data contains records of agricultural land sales by the Canadian Pacific Railway to settlers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba between 1881 and 1927. These records were transcribed from original ledgers by Glenbow Archives volunteers and later enhanced by Archives and Special Collections at UCalgary. The dataset includes purchaser names, legal land descriptions, acres purchased, and cost per acre.

Use Cases

• Analyze land settlement patterns based on purchaser names and legal land descriptions.
• Study historical agricultural land prices based on cost per acre and number of acres purchased.
• Trace family or individual land acquisition histories based on purchaser name records.
• Assess the geographic distribution of CPR land sales based on province-level data.

Strengths

• Records span a 46-year period from 1881 to 1927.
• Covers three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
• Includes specific data fields like purchaser names, legal land descriptions, acres purchased, and cost per acre.

Limitations

• Completeness and accuracy cannot be guaranteed, requiring verification by researchers.
• A small number of records lack legal land descriptions and cannot be associated with a specific province.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Archives and Special Collections at UCalgary, based on original CPR Land Sales ledgers.

Collection Method

Transcribed by volunteers from the Glenbow Archives and later enhanced by UCalgary.

Time Range

1881 to 1927

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-30 04:10:38.

Geography

Primarily Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, Canada.