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The roots of the modern Western Irrigation District extend back to when the Canadian Pacific Railway was building and uniting the country through the construction of a cross-country railroad.

CPR envisioned a railway joining the eastern and western coasts peppered with thriving settlements producing goods for freight. This gave CPR a personal stake in making sure that the underdeveloped land would be able to produce livestock grain and produce.

In 1857, Captain John Palliser did and extensive study of the land in western Canada for the CPR. He concluded that a triangle of land (later known as the Palliser Triangle) could not support agriculture for two reasons: low precipitation and poor soil.

The CPR agreement with the federal government included receiving 24 miles of arable land on each side of the tracks. When Palliser came back and said that large sections were non-arable, they decided to irrigate and negotiated further with the government to secure the entire Palliser Triangle in exchange for building an irrigation system.

The irrigation system broke down into three blocks: Eastern, Central and Western irrigation system. The western irrigation block was the first to begin construction in 1904 with a system of canals branching out from the Bow River.

To show new settlers that they could make a living in this arid land the CPR constructed a demonstration farm to teach the fundamentals of farming in these conditions. The 2,000-acre demonstration farm was established in 1908 and began to raise cows, horses, pigs and chickens. They also included large gardens and greenhouses that produced the vegetables, berries and flowers CPR used in the dining cars and hotels across western Canada Winnipeg to Vancouver. Dairy products were loaded on the trains daily and the demonstration farm soon supplied large amounts of a variety of products required for the trains and hotels.

Once the demonstration farm shoed the viability of the land, new immigrants came to the region in droves. In 1907, trains full of immigrants pulled into Strathmore and began lining up at the CPR Colonization Office for transportation to their new farms. Often they stayed at the Demonstration Farm to learn the latest in farming techniques before starting work on their own farms.

It was customary for new residents to stay at the demonstration farm bunkhouse until they had suitable accommodation on their farms. The CPR Colonization Office began to make "ready made farms" complete with a small house and barn to get people settled faster. Unfortunately, there were not many takers for the small farms after they discovered that the 80-acre farms were not large enough to support a single family.

Palliser's Triangle was becoming a viable farming area and with its growing economy came competition from the Canadian National Railroad. The result of competition between the two railway giants was "The Battle for Rockyford".

By 1910, the CN route from Redland to Calgary began to cross excavated watercourses and watercourses still under construction in the CPR's irrigation district. CN's contractors were filling in ditches to lay down their new track ruining the irrigation for many farms.

Court injunctions stopped construction for long periods of time until a decision ordered CN to build concrete bridges over the irrigation ditches. In 1912, the CP Irrigation District realized that the CN bridges were made of wood and they gathered a large number of their Western Section employees and stationed them at the end of the CN railroad track - Rocky Ford. Led by Robert S. Stockton, the irrigation superintendent, the men armed themselves with axes and picks and prepared to tear up the railway line over the disputed ditches as soon as the track was laid. Luckily, the Royal Northwest Mounted Police defused the situation and CN corrected its "mistakes".

During the economic depressions of the 1930's, the CPR began to divest itself of the irrigation system. Farmers were not able to meet their obligations to the company and CPR was no longer the leading railroad in the country. They wanted to give up control of their unprofitable subsidiaries such as the irrigation systems.

CPR planned to abandon the western section completely due to the greater amount of precipitation near the mountains. Farmers with lifetime contracts were understandably upset with the CPR's plan. Closing down the irrigation system meant the farmers in the western section would not be able to diversify their crops by raising beef, pork and poultry because they were dependant on the irrigation system.

Representatives of the CPR, federal government, provincial government and water users of the western section met to discuss ways they could reach a satisfactory agreement. Farmers felt it was the responsibility of the CPR to honor its commitments in the area but the CPR felt that its commitments were to provide water only until the farmer’s land mortgages were paid in full.

Hard times had left many contract holders unable to pay their water rates and they begun to "sign off" on their CPR contracts giving back control of the land to the CPR. The CPR then began to close down irrigation systems to land that had come back under their full control. All but 56 farmers sold their mortgages back to the CPR. Those 56 farmers eventually forced the CPR to negotiate terms and conditions governing a transfer of the western section to farmers.

On March 4, 1944 the CPR and the Board of Trustees of the western section, represented by a committee of water users, reached an agreement for the transfer of the western section to the water users. This agreement formed the Western Irrigation District. It was decided CPR would operate the system until April 30, 1944 then turn operations of the district over to the W.I.D., who would be represented by an elected board of five trustees chosen by water user's.

Over the years, the new W.I.D. began to upgrade their water delivery systems with new and improved techniques allowing rough land to be irrigated.

Since the introduction of the sprinkler irrigation system in the 1950's, the W.I.D. has worked hard to improve its water delivery capabilities at the cheapest possible cost. Modern technology has led the W.I.D. to the wheel-roll sprinkler, center pivot sprinkler and individual gun sprinklers that allowed more land than ever to be irrigated.

The 1990's have seen the rehabilitation of the canal systems throughout the W.I.D., reducing the canal systems from 1,600 km in length to 1,200 km by using shortcuts, straightening and pipelines that allow better water delivery with less maintenance.

The original settlers and pioneers of Palliser's Triangle have a lot to be proud of when they look back on what their labor created from a supposedly non-arable desert. Their dedication and hard work is evident when you look at the healthy and prosperous land of the W.I.D. The past and the future of the W.I.D. relies on these people and others like them that have accomplished so much through good times and bad.