The settlers who came to the Peace River Country during 1910-14 did so for a variety of reasons. One was the excessive publicity about the fertility of the region ever since government explorers had portrayed it as a "veritable garden of Eden" during the 1870’s. Another was the apparent probability that a railroad would shortly be extended there. In the spring of 1909, Premier Rutherford of Alberta announced a program of lucrative bond guarantees to major railway companies. With this in place, it seemed certain that two or more lines would soon enter the region. Without one, a market economy would have been impossible. A special appeal was the prospect that at least one line would intersect the Pine Pass and extend straight west to the Pacific Ocean. This would have put the Peace River Country closer to a coastal outlet than any other wheat growing region in western Canada.

Another attraction was the fact that, with so much land surveyed and thrown open for homesteading at once, group settlement was possible. Thus, members of a particular ethnic or religious community could take up holdings in the same area, an undertaking which, by now, was more difficult on the more densely occupied southern prairies. The settlement of groups, or even large families, was given further encouragement by a new provision in the Dominion Lands Act which allowed homesteaders to undertake their residency requirements on land occupied by other family members, and not just their parents, near their homesteads. (See Appendix E, Section 18). It was also now possible for a homesteader to file for land as a proxy on behalf of a family member and to reserve a quarter-section on behalf of a seventeen year old family member. (See Appendix---, Section 9.3). In addition, a homesteader could now officially abandon an entry in favor of a family member. (See Appendix E, Section 13.3).

The greatest attraction, however, may have stemmed from the fact that, by 1910, in the United States as well as Canada, the traditional quarter-section homestead was no longer large enough to sustain a family of any size. Due to overproduction, grain prices had not risen appreciably in recent years, so farmers on the southern prairies were either foreclosing or selling out to land companies or equally cramped neighbors. Many of these small farmers now sought new holdings in areas where they would be able to build bigger farms. One of the vehicles making this possible in western Canada was South African scrip. By the Volunteer Bounty Act of 1908, all Canadian volunteers of the Boer War were given the right to two quarter-sections of Crown land in the West provided that they performed the regular homestead duties on them. (See Appendixes--- and---). Few such veterans wished to take up this offer, but they were allowed to sell their entitlement to others who did through registered land agents. (See Appendix---). Many of the first settlers in the Peace River region, therefore, were able to begin their new farms on the basis of two quarters, and, in some cases, even more, as their spouses could also purchase scrip. These scrip holdings could be supplemented by regular homesteads on adjoining quarters.

The settlers of 1910-14 could enlarge their farms in other ways as well. For example, if the homestead quarter was obstructed by a lake, slough, or other such impediment, the homesteader could "have added to his homestead, from adjoining land, a sufficient area to make up, but not exceed, one hundred and sixty acres." (Appendix---, Section 9.1). It was also now possible for a homesteader to purchase fractional quarters (portions of land which were not complete quarters) at a price not less than three dollars per acre if such were available and adjacent to their homesteads. (See Appendix E, Section 32). Half-breed money scrip was still available for settlers, along with some Military Bounty scrip that had earlier been presented to veterans of the Manitoba and North West Rebellions of 1870 and 1885. Up to the end of 1912, over half of the farms begun in the Peace River region would be in excess of one quarter-section, and, in some cases, they would be as large as eight.

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