Yorkton, Saskatchewan

Yorkton is a large centre on the Yellowhead highway that I used to drive to and through quite often when I lived and worked in Saskatchewan. The Pool elevators were a common sight across Saskatchewan. Unfortunately they went out of business in 2007 when they were bought out. The history of the Pool elevators is in Wikipedia, if you're interested.
I added some special effects using Photoshop to dress up this prairie icon. I took this photo in 2001, if I remember correctly.
Live long enough and many things come and go, as has been the case with Pool elevators.

Wakaw, Saskatchewan

I'm not sure any more if this grain elevator still stands. Perhaps someone from the area could let me know. In any case I've given the original photo a different look to show the colours and lines of these massive structures. Click on the title to go to Wakaw's web page. The story of the origin of Wakaw is of interest.
The history of prairie grain elevators is also interesting. Click here to find a great overview of grain elevators in western Canada. They do a nice job of describing the reason for the shape of grain elevators and how modern design is changing grain elevators.

Wet Prairies

When we left Saskatchewan to retire on the "wet coast" as it's sometimes called we were convinced that the prairies were about to go into an extended period of drought. We experienced many dust storms and saw grain crops that barely produced enough grain to make harvesting worth while. This year's been totally opposite. Constant rain and even some flooding is happening on the prairies in Canada. Farmers are hoping that they can get the crops off this fall. They could have bumper crops or as sometimes happens, frost could come early and wipe out the promising yield. Only time will tell. Who wants to be a farmer these days when the climate is so unpredictable?
I found this photo that I took a while back showing water right next to a ripening wheat field. I thought of the farmers this year when I came across it and decided to post it here. Whenever I take photos on the prairies I'm always been fascinated with water next to grain . It's likely due to the anxiety we used to experience on the farm when the grain was testing too humid during harvest. We had to stop and wait for nature to dry the grain. Otherwise we risked it overheating in the grain bins and catching fire, or at the very least, spoiling the whole bin full of precious grain.
The old buildings in this photo are also a reminder of different times when more farms existed and each farm was reasonably self-reliant. Mixed farms were common when I was a child. Now farmers tend to be grain farmers or cattle farmers. Specializing can be riskier when the one thing they're farming doesn't do well that year.

Prelate, SK

We drove through another small village, pop. 164, while travelling through part of Saskatchewan we hadn't seen before. This is the only elevator still standing in Prelate. If you click on the title you'll be directed to a book that's been placed online re the history of Prelate. I've linked the title to the first page regarding the history of the grain elevators. Very interesting history. It looks like they had five elevators there at one time. This book is a reminder of the decline of the rural communities because farms got bigger as machinery became larger and more efficient. Farmers than sold and moved to the nearest large towns or cities to retire or to work.

Leader, SK

Last month we drove through a part of Saskatchewan we hadn't visited before. I took this photo of the Leader elevator along with the sculpted Ord's Kangaroo Rats. Apparently these rats can leap up to 8 feet at once. Leader is the furthest north that they've been found.
It looks like this elevator is still being used. I've linked the heading to some information re Leader and area. We wanted to drive out to the Sandhills nearby but the roads were being repaired and it began to rain, again. Maybe another time.

Cudworth, Sk

I understand that this elevator is no longer standing. It's unfortunate how quickly these prairie icons are being torn down. They're just not economical, profit-wise, to leave them up. Maintenance upkeep and lack of use, due to the cement behemoths that are replacing them, is dooming most of them to being destroyed. It's less expensive to tear them down than keep them up. Some communities have managed to keep their elevators as museums but the owners (large corporations) make it difficult and expensive to do so. Nostalgia on my part? Perhaps. Sometimes it's hard to let go of what was an important part of our lives as we grew up. The wooden grain elevators is that for me.
(Click on the Title to read about Cudworth.)

Wooden windmills on the prairies

Even rarer, I'm sure, than wooden grain elevators are the wooden windmills that are still standing. This one is on my brother-in-law's farm north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It's in need of repair as the wooden slats are rotting and it's becoming structurally unsound. It's too bad as these also are icons of the prairies. Using wind power readily available on the wide open prairies was an energy efficient way of pumping water from the well for the water supply of the farm herds.
I have a few photos of windmills in Saskatchewan. Does anyone have a collection? Or know of one? I googled windmills and came up empty. I'll have to do some more searching as now I'm curious as to whether these memories of our past have been preserved.

Inventory of Existing Saskatchewan elevators

I just came across this list of existing grain elevators in Saskatchewan that was completed in July 2006. There are between 500 and 600 remaining. What I like about this list is that it gives the dates the elevators were built. The Pense elevator I've posted here was built in 1967.
If you want to see the list and see if your favourite elevator was still standing in '06, click on the title of this blog.

Holiday Greetings

I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and may 2009 have brought you fond memories of times well spent. And, may 2010 bring you all that you wish for.

Times past

Before steel bins became available and affordable for farmers they built wooden bins to store the grain before shipping. The bins were often built in or near the grain fields so as to cut down on transportation time during the harvest. The risk, of course, was that the bins were vulnerable to thievery of the grain by unscrupulous farmers who wanted to meet their quota. The main disadvantage of these square-cornered buildings was in loading the grain. Someone had to crawl inside the bin and shovel the grain to the auger. I remember the dust and the hard work of moving the heavy grain by shovel. If I didn't put a handkerchief over my nose and mouth I would suffer from inhaling the dust. The worst grain for nasty dust was oats.
These bins I photographed a few years back near Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan. I've "colored" the photo to make it look like it was taken much longer ago to try to recreate the times.
I enjoy the progressive falling of the bins all in a row--symbolic of time passing.

Tessier, Saskatchewan

Tessier is a village of around 30 inhabitants, located west, southwest of Saskatoon. This elevator was still standing in 2001 when this photo was taken. It is a "typical" country grain elevator in that it stands very much alone in the wide open prairie. This elevator is right next to the main highway and so is easily spotted if you're driving along highway #7 on the way to Kindersley from Saskatoon. It's about 50 kilometers or 30 miles from Saskatoon. (Click on the title to find it on Google maps.)
I've chosen to "sketch" the photo to give it a more dated and archival look.

Advertising for herbicides

Farmers face a barrage of advertisements extolling the virtues of this or that herbicide, fertilizers and the equipment to apply them with. I took this photo on the side of the elevator in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan and turned it into a black and white to give the message more clout perhaps. The artwork intrigued me and reminded me of the Soviet style propaganda photos one sees extolling the virtues of the workers in the Motherland, etc.
Herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides are a big industry and farmers have little to say about prices of these products. In order to compete they have to apply these products even though many realize the potential harm to the soil and to people. Farmers can't raise their prices in order to cover the additional costs of applying herbicides, etc., and so are at the mercy of the suppliers.
Organic farmers are working hard to counter this trend and we should support them for it as far as I'm concerned.

Classic Kinley

I made a "sketch" of the photo I took of the Kinley elevator while a train was passing by. To me, it gives the scene a more "classic" feel adding to the memories of times passing.

Rose Valley, Saskatchewan

I'm posting this photo of a grain elevator near Rose Valley, Saskatchewan that was sent to me by friends in Regina. Here is the correction to my previous notes as sent to me by a Rose Valley resident: "Rose Valley is a Town. The elevator is owned by a local farmer but is still in it's orginal location, not out in the countryside. This picture just happens to be taken from the Highway, across the school yard so the CP tracks are not evident. The owner of the agricultural land in between the school & elevator does not own the elevator."
My appreciation to the Rose Valley resident who visited my blog and took the time to correct my version of the photo.

Leney, Saskatchewan

When I took this picture in 2000, all that stood here were these elevators and an abandoned school across the road. These are and continue to be, signs of times past. While I don't want to dwell on the past, I believe we honour ourselves when we honour our past. By taking and posting photos of grain elevators I have chosen to honour part of our history as a province, as a country, and as a people.
I have used a filter to emphasize the colours and and contours of this photo as a way of showing more details. It's easy to forget details in order to remember selectively what we choose to ignore. However, sometimes details must be remembered, not in a vengeful way, but in order to keep ourselves fully informed and able to make clear decisions based on all the information.
I'm not sure where I'm going with that leap, but I do see a connection here.

US Elevator history from 1843-1943

William J. Brown has written a book about the history of grain elevators in the U.S., and is now selling his book. I'm not promoting his book, per se, however I am letting my readers know about this in case they are interested in pursuing it. Click on the title to link to his blog about this book.
I'm passing this along as I'm glad to see that there are some writers out there who are willing to spend the time and effort to record this information for others to read.

Here's a quote from his book that applies to the Canadian prairies, as well, as far as I'm concerned:

"Frank Gohlke, a photographer of grain elevators, writes,

For me, the essential grain elevator view is obtained through the windshield of a car or truck while traveling on a highway in Kansas or Oklahoma or the Texas Panhandle. It is not a static view, but one that begins just as the elevator becomes visible above the center line, above five miles out of town, and continues until it disappears in the vibration in the rearview mirror. In the minutes that pass as the speck grows to colossal size and then shrinks to rejoin the horizon, many contradictory messages are created: we are powerful, we build for centuries, our monuments rival those of other heroic ages; we are insignificant, our hold on this landscape is tenuous, nature and time erode our greatest creations as if they were dust. What lingers i[n] the memory, though, is the image of a solitary, upright form in the middle distance of an endless plain."

Gull Lake, SK

While surfing the web about Gull Lake, Saskatchewan where I took this photo, I came across a painting of this elevator by Vickie Emms that portrays this elevator and landscape in another way.
Gull Lake is along the Trans Canada Highway west of Swift Current. The population is about 1,000. The elevator on the photo looks like it's getting on in age. I haven't been back there since I took the photo September, 2006, so it may be torn down by now. In the meantime, we can enjoy the prairie sentinel while it still stands.

Holiday Greetings

I wish everyone the best of the holiday season and may you have much to look forward to in 2009. In spite of the looming difficult economic times, now is the time to tap into the goodness of human nature and do what we can to see each other through the hard times.
Even though we may be losing part of our history as the prairie grain elevators are torn down, we must do like we do when we lose an old friend: Remember the good parts and use those memories to add to the goodness of our own lives.
Happy blogging!

Zenon Park, Saskatchewan

I've "enriched" this photo of Zenon Park's main street and grain elevator. A link to information about this small town is in the title. Villages and small towns throughout the prairies are losing their landmarks and are disappearing from view as a result. Much business is lost and many stores close after the elevators are gone. While it's a sign of the times, it's also a sad reflection of how progress brings changes that aren't always better. There's less dependency on the immediate neighbours and less friendly conversations and perhaps not-so-friendly gossip that occurs when paths seldom cross due to the longer distances to drive to deliver the grain and to get supplies.
The "small town" atmosphere is slowly shifting to "big box" shopping and big city supply centres.
In the meantime, we can reminisce and commiserate while we fondly recall the "good old days".

Saving the elevators

I came across this video done by CBC back in 1996, wherein the town of Inglis, Manitoba wanted to save the 4 elevators as an historical site. They realized that it would cost them $70,000 per elevator and weren't sure where they would get the money. I googled the name, Inglis, Manitoba and they seem to be promoting the four remaining elevators as an historical tourist attraction. Good for them. I would suggest that if any readers are traveling through Manitoba that they make sure to stop in and have a look at what prairie towns used to be like.
Upon further investigation, I've also found some photos from Inglis, calling the elevators, "Inglis Grain Elevators Historic Site". There are two photos including a map. Inglis is just north of Russell, Manitoba, just off Highway 16.
Good for Inglis and Manitoba for keeping history alive like this.