Somerset Pool.jpg
In 1994, a new elevator was opened at La Riviere by Manitoba Pool, joining an annex built in 1980. In November 2004, both of them, along with three steel bins, were moved 14 miles north to Somerset and set beside an elevator built there in 1992, doubling its capacity. The facility is now in use by Delmar Commodities.
Photo: Chris Thompson
Angusville UGG_CMYK.jpg
In 1966, when this photo was taken, Angusville had no fewer than four grain elevators operated by three companies: Searle, United Grain Growers, and National. The UGG elevator, second from left, was built in 1934, replacing an elevator that had burned to the ground earlier that year. It was sold to Federal Grain in October 1968 then resold to Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1972. Today, it is the only one left, used by a private company.
Photo: Agricore United Engineering Department
Culross Paterson_cmyk.jpg
Two grain elevators at Culross, along Highway 2 in the Rural Municipality of Grey were in operation by the Paterson Grain Company when this photo was taken in July 1992. The elevator in the background, purchased from United Grain Growers in September 1969 (which bought it from Canadian Consolidated Grain in 1959), has since been removed. The other was moved here from nearby Elm Creek in February 1989. It is still in use by the company.
Photo: Historic Resources Branch
Gladstone UGG_cmyk.jpg
A grain elevator at Gladstone, shown here in 1969, held the double distinction of being the oldest country elevator in Manitoba made of concrete, and the first one to be demolished. Built in 1918 as a grist mill for the Echo Flour Mills Company, the mill portion was badly damaged by fire in 1919 but its grain elevator was left intact. The former mill building was used as a creamery until 1974 while the elevator was leased successively by Paterson Grain (1920-26), Manitoba Pool (1926-32), and United Grain Growers (1932-40). In July 1940, UGG purchased it outright. The facility closed in 1997.
Photo: Agricore United Engineering Department
In the 1950s, there were over 700 grain elevators in Manitoba. Today, there are fewer than 200. You can help to preserve the legacy of these disappearing “Prairie sentinels.”
The Manitoba Historical Society (MHS) is gathering information about all elevators that ever stood in Manitoba, regardless of their present status. Collaborating with the Manitoba Co-operator it is supplying these images of a grain elevator each week in hopes readers will be able to tell the society more about it, or any other elevator they know of.
MHS Gordon Goldsborough webmaster and Journal editor has developed a website to post your replies to a series of questions about elevators. The MHS is interested in all grain elevators that have served the farm community.
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Your contributions will help gather historical information such as present status of elevators, names of companies, owners and agents, rail lines, year elevators were built — and dates when they were torn down (if applicable).
There is room on the website to post personal recollections and stories related to grain elevators. The MHS presently also has only a partial list of all elevators that have been demolished. You can help by updating that list if you know of one not included on that list.
Your contributions are greatly appreciated and will help the MHS develop a comprehensive, searchable database to preserve the farm community’s collective knowledge of what was once a vast network of grain elevators across Manitoba.
Please contribute to This Old Grain Elevator website here. You will receive a response, by email or phone call, confirming that your submission was received.
