27

The Dominion Land Survey settlement grid around Westlock and Edison.
1900
Edison, Westlock, Alberta, Canada

28

Dominion Land Survey and Homesteaders

The land survey for homesteading began after the reserves were established. The Busby and Alcomdale areas south of Edison were surveyed in 1882 and the Westlock area just prior to 1900. Up until that time, those who lived and farmed on the land were known as squatters, as they had no registered claim to the land. Surveyor J. K. McLean working in the area just to the south of the future Edison in 1899 along Township Road 590 between Townships 58 and 59 recorded the burned over but open country to the north, J. B Cyr was the surveyor who marked out the section boundaries of the Edison area in 1901, and he wrote of the area then known as the "Little Grand Prairie"

"Half of this township has been over-run by fire and the timber is dry here and partly fallen, except in the vicinity of the correction line (Township Road 590 still known as the ('Correction Line'), where spruce, from one to two and a half feet in diameter, is still standing; a very good quantity of this timber would make good construction material. The eastern portions of this township and of the township to the north have been explored by a great many settlers from Morinville and St. Emile, who expect to settle here in the spring. Several have ploughed certain pieces of the prairie.
I have been told that a site for a chapel has been chosen and marked on the south slope of the hill in Sections 23 and 24. There is very little muskeg land in this township (59)."