The fonds consists of colonization files (including those of Department of Natural Resources, Department of Colonization and Development, Canadian Colonization Association, and various colonization boards) (1886-1940); Advisory Committee minutes and reports (1916-1958); Executive Branch files (1911-1952); P.L. Naismith and S.G. Porter correspondence (1912-1957); coal files (1904-1911); and British Columbia Land Department files (1896-1926) as well as land sale maps, building plans, plans and drawings of railway structures & equipment from the CPR Mechanical Department.

The fonds consists of surveying correspondence and plans (1922-1953), field notebooks (1926-1952), military papers (1915-1917), some personal correspondence (1907-1964), and photographs of survey parties and camps (1909-1910, 1928-1929).