The first settlement wave in the Peace River Country had been delayed for several reasons, primarily because of the remoteness of the region and the difficulty farmers would encounter in trying to locate there. This was why the government had been hesitant about subdividing townships and throwing the land open for homesteading in the first place. However, in the spring of 1909, the Canadian Northern Railway began pushing its "Peace River Line" towards Onoway and in the direction of Grande Prairie. It was, therefore, decided to subdivide the open grasslands of this prairie into quarter-sections and open a land office at Grouard. When 20 full and 15 partial townships were completed by the fall, the stage was set for the first land rush, which began the following spring.

These first homesteaders were not the first farmers in the Peace River Country, for pockets of agricultural settlement had evolved years earlier along the banks of the Peace River. Anticipating further settlement inland, the government had begun base line surveys of the region as early as 1882, but, with no serious railway proposals then afloat, the surveys were curtailed. It was not until the Klondike gold rush that the first genuine prospect of a settlement wave began to loom. Shortly after Treaty 8 was concluded during 1899-1900, Reserve land for the region’s First Nations was plotted east of Peace River Crossing, north of Dunvegan, and at Sturgeon Lake. In 1901-02, C.C. Fairchild marked out a 38km sq concession southwest of the Crossing for a colonization scheme initiated by the ill-fated and fraudulent Peace River Colonization & Land Development Company. With the demise of this company, the government decided that, henceforth, Crown land in the region would not be turned over to such initiatives, but instead, set aside exclusively for individual settlers, with certain tracts earmarked for timber and grazing leases.

During 1904-06, the 6^th Meridian was corrected, and the 19^th to 23^rd Base Lines completed by Arthur St. Cyr, James Wallace and Henry Selby. During 1906-08, settlements at Fort Vermilion, North Vermilion, Boyer River, Shaftesbury, Peace River Crossing, Spirit River and Flyingshot Lake were marked out by Selby, Jean-Baptiste St. Cyr and Herbert Holcroft. These were to accommodate the squatters who had already taken up land at these locations. Jean-Baptiste St. Cyr and Holcroft also made a start at township subdivision in the vicinity of Dunvegan, Spirit River, Flyingshot Lake, Griffin Creek and present day Reno. Finally, in the spring of 1909, Walter MacFarlane was contracted to subdivide Grande Prairie. When the first land rush ensued the following spring, more township surveys quickly followed, including those on the Pouce Coupe, Spirit River and Fairview prairies, and west of Lake Kimiwan. By the end of 1910, the grid outline of what would effectively become the settled areas of the Alberta portion of the Peace River Country was in place. The British Columbia portion would be undertaken in 1912. (See Appendix---)

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