Grain Elevators In Sask.

rusty6 · Jan 28, 2019

Sask Wheat Pool used to give out a calendar to all their customers and I've saved a few. This one is from 1965. Interesting to see just how numerous their elevators are on this map. Almost every little town and village had at least one, sometimes more, wooden elevator. The density of the elevators on the map indicates which areas were the higher producing. Unfortunately the resolution is not high enough to read actual town names in this picture. I'd guess most of them are gone now.

Bruce from Can. · Jan 28, 2019

My cousin was a elevator manger in the town of Inchkeith Saskatchewan during the 70?s, don?t know if he worked for Pool. They kept closing elevators down , and moving him around the province. Does your calendar show any Pool elevator in Macoun , Midale, or Weyburn areas?

John Deere D · Jan 28, 2019

Thanks for the info Rusty6

My Grandfather was on several of these Elevator Crews driving Spikes:

Dawson Creek BC CANADA....Mile Zero of the Alcan / ALASKA HIGHWAY:

The last elevator of the 1930 era was sold to the Town of Dawson Creek BC CANADA....and moved down the Street (Alaska Avenue)to its new permanent location...1988?

An art gallery........

Notice the Elevators in the picture with the USA ARMY arriving to start the construction of the ALASKA /ALCAN Highway...Dawson Creek > Fairbanks ALASKA..

All photos taken in the area of Dawson Creek BC.

My Father arrived in the Dawson Creek area in August 1929...my Mother born in the Dawson Creek area 1930.

Bob...Dawson Creek area in the Summer.....Arizona in the Winter.....

John Deere D · Jan 28, 2019

Grain elevator as of today........

Now an Art Gallery..............

Railway Station built 1930........
My wife (Lois) was born here in Dawson Creek BC same as her Mother 1920.....Lois's Mother shall be 99 on December 28,2019!!!!!!!!!!.....................

Bob.........

fixerupper · Jan 28, 2019

When I was first in Sask on the harvest the first thing I noticed was all the wooden elevators sticking up from the prairie. It took my mind way back to my very young days when every town here had one or two wooden elevators. The last wooden elevator to be built around here was in the middle 60's which is late. It wasn't used very long then it was torn down. Now they are replaced with million bushel cement silos and 500,000 to 750,000 bushel steel bins. The old wooden ones are too small and slow for the amount of bushels we get off an acre here in Iowa. The wood elevators I hauled to in Kansas were built for straight trucks and getting a semi off the scale and cranked around to get straight for the door was tough. A novice driver had to gain experience plenty fast or the tarp would get ripped off on the door on the blind side.

rusty6 · Jan 28, 2019

(quoted from post at 15:54:47 01/28/19) Grain elevator as of today........

Now an Art Gallery..............

Railway Station built 1930........
My wife (Lois) was born here in Dawson Creek BC same as her Mother 1920.....Lois's Mother shall be 99 on December 28,2019!!!!!!!!!!.....................

Bob.........

That is great to see an old wooden elevator saved and made into something useful. Its not easy or cheap but hope a few more got saved. I liked those vintage shots of Dawson Creek too.
Bruce, here is a closer shot of the map in the Weyburn area. As you can see the wheat pool was well represented around there. Inchkeith is a few miles to the Northeast just out of the frame on this photo.

Philip d · Jan 28, 2019

Great pictures Rusty! There?s still a wooden elevator in operation on PEI. We had a tour of it last fall. An employee was using the rope man elevator and got stuck part way up one time because the structure shifted during filling while he was assessing up and the floor jammed. He had to wait there several hours while they unloaded into a different bin to push it back in place so he could get out.

Crazy Horse · Jan 28, 2019

Rusty, my wife's mother's family was from Yellowgrass, well the Yellowgrass area. Still some of the family there. I see it on the map NW of
Weyburn. Where do you live, in that area on the map. I visited there once in 1996. At that time there were four elevators still standing,
not sure if they were all in use or not. I took a photo of the four and did a water color from the photo. I will take a picture of my
effort and see if I can post it here in a while.

PS: Along with nearby Midale, Yellowgrass till holds the Canadian record for hot temperature, something like 115 F in July of 1937 I believe
it was.

Ande · Jan 28, 2019

Bob, wow, sure enjoyed your pictures you posted, thank you for sharing.

Ande · Jan 28, 2019

I like your post Rusty. Thank you

Crazy Horse · Jan 28, 2019

Rusty ..... I think this should show up. The water color is small in size, about the same size as the original photo. Hope this works ...

Crazy Horse · Jan 28, 2019

Didn't work for my Yellowgrass watercolor. Will try once again and then not waste any more time. I have posted photos before, I use the advanced tools they offer on Classic View but I cannot remember the procedure. Here goes again ....

Rick Anderson · Jan 28, 2019

Check between 6 and 9 buy the lake. You will see Silton, thats where I hauled when I was a kid. When it closed we had to haul to
Craven, ten miles farther south. Thanks for posting

centash · Jan 28, 2019

We toured that art gallery on our way to the Yukon. Good to see it repurposed. We also drove the area near Weyburn on the other map....A lot of those small towns sure look to be disappearing sadly enough.
Ben

rusty6 · Jan 28, 2019

(quoted from post at 17:53:16 01/28/19) Will try once again and then not waste any more time. I have posted photos before, I use the advanced tools they offer on Classic View but I cannot remember the procedure.

Made it this time. Nice work on the painting of Yellowgrass elevators. We were lucky to live through the days of the wooden elevators. Younger generations will only know them in photos, videos, and art like yours.
Rick Anderson, I've been to Silton but can't remember a thing about it except a little park by the lake at Valeport.

rusty6 · Jan 28, 2019

(quoted from post at 18:15:00 01/28/19) .A lot of those small towns sure look to be disappearing sadly enough.
Ben

Its true, many of those town names live on google earth but many of them are gone. The railway and grain elevators were their life line.

Wheat47 · Jan 28, 2019

Love the elevator pic's. For some reason, they have a special place in my heart.
I did deliver a few loads of grain to one or two here in NE Montana and one of my uncles
managed a couple or three Farmer's Union elevators.
Here is a web ,site a friend of mine started a few years back:

http://www.country-grain-elevator-historical-society.org

He was/is a professional photographer, so some of his pic's are
pretty good. Many of the elevators he has pic's of are gone now:
some taken down and a few burned down in prairie fires.

Take a look at his site. I think you'll enjoy it. Also there was a book out there, from Canada I think, called "Dinosaurs of the Prairie" or something like that. It was pictures of elevators. I think it came out 30-40 years ago. Any one ever see it??

rusty6 · Jan 28, 2019

(quoted from post at 20:03:32 01/28/19) Love the elevator pic's.
Here is a web ,site a friend of mine started a few years back:

http://www.country-grain-elevator-historical-society.org

He was/is a professional photographer, so some of his pic's are
pretty good. Many of the elevators he has pic's of are gone

Good site. Glad to see somebody is saving and displaying the old elevator pics. I've got a bunch on file here but they were not taken by me so there might be copyright issues if I tried to start a site with them. This one is my own from early 1984. New Sask Wheat Pool elevator going up. Far end of the row is the old original SWP elevator that remained in service even after the new one began operating that spring. Less than 20 years later it was the last one demolished. Then the tracks were taken out.

Paul from MI · Jan 28, 2019

we went thru Saskatchewan in the fall of 2010. Beautiful scenery. I remember seeing an elevator just being visible on the skyline. It was nine miles before we passed it. I thought about a farmer in 1910 leaving his farm with a load of wheat and a team headed for the elevator that he could see in the distance. It would take him about 4 hours to get there and 4 more hours to get back home with that team of horses. WOW!

rusty6 · Jan 28, 2019

(quoted from post at 21:01:05 01/28/19)
I thought about a farmer in 1910 leaving his farm with a load of wheat and a team headed for the elevator that he could see in the distance. It would take him about 4 hours to get there and 4 more hours to get back home with that team of horses. WOW!

My grandfathers and great uncles hauled grain to town that way. This time of year it was cold riding the sleigh and sometimes better to jump off and walk behind to build up some heat. One trip a day even in the summer. 60 bushels a trip. All loaded by hand scoop. Usually well under a dollar a bushel. They earned their money in those days. Thought I had a picture scanned of my grandfather and grain wagon but can't find it.

jeffcat · Jan 28, 2019

Take a watch.
Elevators.

John Deere D · Jan 28, 2019

Thanks for posting this Film "Jeffcat".........................

Bob....

Grain Elevators In Sask.

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