Mapping a Northern Land: The Survey of Canada, 1947-1994

Bill Waiser is a professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan.
He is the author of Saskatchewan’s Playground: A History of Prince
Albert National Park and Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of Western
Canada’s National Parks, 1915–1946.  Hi

Mapping a Northern Land is an exhaustive history of surveying in Canada
in the latter half of the 20th century. Building on the earlier work of
Don Thomson’s three-volume Men and Meridians, the book seeks to
explain how new technology, in particular the computer and satellite,
revolutionized the mapping of Canada’s vast territory, especially more
remote areas. The story is told in 19 chapters by recognized experts in
the field, many of whom were directly involved in the events and
developments they describe; topics range from geodesy and topographic
mapping to cadastral and hydrographic surveys to aeronautical charts and
remote sensing. There are many firsts. Just as Canada, for example, met
the challenge of surveying in the mountains by developing photogrammetry
in the late 19th century, geographic information systems (more popularly
known as GIS) is also a Canadian invention of the late 20th century.

Mapping is a Northern Land is a handsome publication, richly
illustrated with maps, photographs, tables, and figures, and
supplemented by several good appendixes. The writing is not as
accessible as that in Men and Meridians, but specialists will find much
here of interest; indeed, this book should be regarded as the standard
reference source on the subject.