Manitoba CPR Land Sales Records from 1881 to 1927

Records of agricultural land sales by the Canadian Pacific Railway to settlers in Manitoba from 1881 to 1927. The dataset includes purchaser names, legal land descriptions, acreage, and cost per acre, transcribed by volunteers from Glenbow Archives and enhanced by Archives and Special Collections at UCalgary. An interactive web application is available for exploring the spatial data.

Use Cases

• Mapping historical land ownership patterns based on legal land descriptions linked to spatial boundaries.
• Analyzing land sale prices and acreage trends over time based on cost per acre and purchase date.
• Studying settler migration and agricultural development based on purchaser names and land parcel locations.

Strengths

• Covers a significant historical period from 1881 to 1927.
• Includes key transaction details like purchaser name, legal description, acres, and cost per acre.
• One of three provincial spatial datasets in a collection, allowing for comparative regional analysis.

Limitations

• Completeness and accuracy cannot be guaranteed, requiring verification by researchers.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Transcribed by volunteers from the Glenbow Archives and later enhanced.

Time Range

1881 to 1927

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-30 04:10:22; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Manitoba, Canada