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Pioneer Cairn Plaza

The Pioneer Cairn Plaza 

The Dominion Land Survey of 1869 provided
an organized method of legally diving the
vast expanses of the Canadian West. The
township consisting of 36 sections was
the base unit of the Survey system.

The site chosen by the original Temperance
colonists of Saskatoon was Township 36
Range 5 West of the Third Meridian. This
Township which later became Saskatoon is
interpreted in the Plaza surrounding the
Pioneer Cairn. The paving Pattern represents
the township and its component parts; each red
paving stone symbolizes 10 acres, each 8 by
8 grid of red stones outlined in grey describes
a legal section. Names of many early pioneers
are engraved in the paving stones relative to
where the families originally homesteaded.

(Cairn was raised 1952; this plaque is presumably from the same year. Submitted by Randy Klassen)

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