The Peace River Country

The agricultural possibilities of the Peace River Country, although
known to the early fur traders for more than a century, did not re-
ccive any serious consideration until after the year 1893, in which
year the Reverend Gough Brick, an Anglican missionary, sent an
exhibit of wheat grown by him on the farm lot connected with his
mission, to the Chicago Exposition, where it was awarded sweep-
stakes in competition with the world. Immediately the question
was raised: “If the Peace River Country can grow the world’s best
wheat, why should it not be settled?”

It was not until fifteen years afterward, however, that the first
venturesome spirits attempted to establish farms in the Peace River
Country. In those days there was no railway, and those early pion-
eers made the long overland trip of more than 300 miles by wagon
to the Peace River lands and established farms in a small way. So
great was their success that by 1913 a general trek to the Peace had
begun and this continued until with the declaration of war in 1914,
not only did further immigration cease for several years, but the
Peace River Country, with a large proportion of young men among
those who made up her new population, was quickly drained of all
too large a number of those who were just beginning the establish-
ment of homes and the development of the district.

But farming operations had begun, and continued to grow. The
railway was built from Edmonton, the capital of the province, and in
the spring of 1916 the first wheat was shipped out, several farmers
hauling their grain a distance of 80 to 90 miles to meet the “end of
steel,’ the railway not being completed to the Peace River until some
months later. The development of farming in the ten years since
that time is indicated by the fact that wheat production has increased
from 10,000 bushels in 1916 to 4,000,000 bushels in 1925, or approx-
imately two-thirds as much as the total wheat production of the en-
tire province of Alberta in 1906.

THE PEACE RIVER DISTRICT, the drainage basin of the Peace
river, lies in the northern parts of the provinces of Alberta and Brit-
ish Columbia. It extends approximately from latitude 54 degrees to
59 degrees north, and from longitude 112 degrees to 125 degrees west,
and is a part of the great Mackenzie river drainage basin. Of the
total area, approximately 49,367 square miles lie in the province of
British Columbia, and 66,395 square miles in the province of Alberta.
Of this vast area, which of necessity includes both mountainous and
flat country, timber lands and prairie, it is the purpose of this pamph-
let to deal particularly with the rich agricultural areas lying along
the course of the Peace river itself, and a portion of the country ex-
tending eastward to Lesser Slave lake—these being the particular
portions in which farming has been carried on successfully on a large
scale, and in which is to still be found much choice land awaiting set-
tlement. At the same time, it is not desired to belittle other parts
of this vast area, equally as fertile and as desirable for settlement

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