The records of the old federal Department of the Interior (1873-1936) have been difficult to find since their dispersal in 1930, when the three prairie provinces were at last put on the same footing as the other provinces in relation to their nature-given resources, and when, in 1936, the Department was abolished.

This volume is designed as a finding aid to these records, which are of fundamental importance to any attempt to achieve a better understanding of the character and progress of the frontier of settlement in western Canada.