Canada. Mining Lands and Yukon Branch : As a result of growing coal mining activities in Alberta, increasing petroleum and natural gas discoveries on the prairies, and the varied gold and other mineral operations in the Yukon, a new Mines Branch was split off from the Timber, Mines, Grazing and Irrigation Branch within the Department of the Interior in 1906. This new Branch was still under the umbrella of the Dominion Lands Bureau and under the control of the Commissioner of Dominion Lands. The Mines Branch was responsible for all mining lands in the new Prairie Provinces, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon Territory, and the Railway Belt in British Columbia. It also maintained the township registers for mining claims in the areas under its control and administered timber rights in the Yukon, petroleum leases, water rights, dredging permits, coal leases, quarrying rights in Rocky Mountain Park, hydraulic mining leases, royalties on gold mined in the Yukon Territory, and the tar sands in northern Alberta. H.H. Rowatt was the first Chief Clerk of the Branch and was also Secretary of the Yukon. In order to carry out its administrative mandate, the Branch developed its own distinct series of central registry files based on a straight numerical sequence. The system lasted until 1922.
In 1909 the Mines Branch of the Department of the Interior was renamed the Mining Lands and Yukon Branch "not only to avoid conflict in respect of the similarity of names to the Mines Branch of the Department of Mines, but also to more correctly give expression to the character and duties of this branch" (Interior, Annual Report, 1909, p. 43). This latter comment referred to the Branch's increasing activities in the North, although it also continued its functions in the West. The new Branch maintained the same numerical filing system of its predecessor, changing only the Branch title on the file jackets. H.H. Rowatt remained as Chief Clerk of the Branch.
The Mining Lands and Yukon Branch was dissolved in 1922. The Branch was split into the Mining Lands Branch and the Northwest Territories and Yukon Branch. The Mining Lands Branch retained only the responsibility for the leasing and regulation of mining operations in the prairies and the North. Its Controller, H.H. Rowatt, was renamed a Superintendent, and the Branch remained under the umbrella of the Dominion Lands Administration, reporting to the Commissioner of Dominion Lands. RG85 General Inventory
