Watersheds: Conceptualizing Manitoba's drained landscape, 1895-1950

This article considers land drainage in the wet prairie region of Manitoba, Canada, from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. It explains why watershed-based drainage funding, proposed in the early 1920s as a means of financing the more substantial ditching necessary to address the province's drainage problems, was embraced by some Manitobans, resisted by others, and repeatedly rejected by provincial administrators. Federal government settlement policy, on one hand, and communities of interest derived from the local topography of southern Manitoba, on the other, defined the terms of the debate over watershed- based funding. While scientific uncertainty and political change were contributing factors, it was in large part to mitigate conflict between highlanders and lowlanders that the province ultimately assumed a larger role in funding drainage. The history of drainage in Manitoba's wet prairie, while broadening understanding of the challenges of mobile nature amid grid-based agricultural settlement, also illustrates the importance of considering the specific environmental conditions for resettlement and the workings of provincial and municipal governments. At such local scales, the intertwined character of the human and physical landscapes is particularly apparent.