McLennan, A Thriving Settlement 31

The greater part of the section is wooded. The woods range from light scattered
poplar, with clumps of willow, to thick spruce, jackpine, birch and poplar, up
to 8 or 10 inches in diameter. The surface generally is level or rolling, but
numerous small rivers, with deep ravines, cut up many quarter sections and
render them unfit for cultivation. There is usually good pasture, however, in
these ravines.

All ordinary grains, grasses, and vegetables are grown in this section. It
is well adapted to mixed farming and contains much good land open for settle-
ment. ‘This section is the first reached from the south, High Prairie beimg but
234 miles by rail from Edmonton.

,

McLennan

McLennan is the second divisional point on the Edmonton, Dunvegan and
British Columbia railway being 262-2 miles northwest of Edmonton. It is
the southern terminus of the Central Canada railway, which runs 48-5 miles
northerly to the town of Peace River. Both of these railways are being oper-
ated under the same system, thus affording a through service to the north and
west alike. From McLennan the main line of the Edmonton, Dunvegan and
British Columbia railway runs westerly to Spirit River, crossing the Smoky
river a few miles below the mouth of Little Smoky river. The old wagon road
from Grouard to Peace River, over which the early settlers toiled from Edmon-
ton, passes within 15 miles of McLennan to the east, so that this section was
overlooked entirely during the first rush.

Settlers found their way into the Spirit River and Grand Prairie sections
by way of Peace river and Dunvegan, a long, roundabout route, though the
only good trail. Later these same settlers, finding it necessary to do consider-
able freighting to and from Lesser Slave lake, and even Edmonton, located a
shorter route from Spirit River to Grouard. Their wagon road is now almost
paralleled by the railway. The Smoky crossings are within three miles of each
other, and the wagon road crosses the same township in which McLennan is
located.

With the opening of the wagon road from Grouard, attention began to be
directed to areas of splendid land lying between Winagami and Kimiwan lakes,
and the Smoky river, and settlement here has been rapid since the laying of
steel.

McLennan is located on the south shore of Kimiwan lake. About this
lake are large hay meadows. Northerly, along the Central Canada railway, is
found rich, level land with open patches, but generally wooded. A number of
locations have been made at Camelia and at Reno, where the steel and the old
Peace River wagon road converge to within a mile or two of each other, with
the North Heart river between. Between McLennan and Smoky river, there
is excellent land, gently undulating, with black loam on clay subsoil, and covered
with light wood and numerous patches of prairie. A prosperous settlement
of French-speaking farmers has grown up here. It centres about the village of
Falher which lies two or three miles south of Donnelly station. The erection of