Justice_Pool_cmyk.jpg
A 116,000-bushel elevator at Justice in the RM of Elton was built by Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1928, and renovated in 1966 and 1993. A 27-bin crib annex was constructed beside it in 1977. Closed by Agricore in 2001, the facility shown in this 2016 photo was no longer serviced by a railway line but it continued in use for private grain storage. In October 2018, its owner demolished it and the remaining wood was burned on site.
Photo: Gordon Goldsborough
Durand_Seed_Plant_cmyk.jpg
This seed-cleaning plant about five miles southeast of Notre Dame de Lourdes hardly looks like the elevator that lies at its core. Built by Federal Grain in 1936, to replace an elevator destroyed by fire in September 1935, it was closed in 1964 and sold to Gabriel Durand the following year. He removed a top portion of the crib to make it easier to move the nine miles to his farm then rebuilt the roof but not as high as the original. His son Marc continues to run the plant.
Photo: Gordon Goldsborough
Swan_Lake_Row_cmyk.jpg
In this 1971 photo of Swan Lake, we see the local train station near four elevators, all of them gone today. From left to right (east to west), we see the Federal elevator built in 1954 that was sold to Manitoba Pool in 1960 then traded to UGG in 1971 (but the Federal name remained on it); then the UGG elevator built in 1925; then the Paterson elevator dating from 1924 with its crib annex (1953) and balloon annex (1940); and finally the 1928 Manitoba Pool elevator traded to UGG in 1974 and burned in 1988.
Photo: University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections
Gretna_Pool_cmyk.jpg
One of only two surviving elevators in the RM of Rhineland, the former Manitoba Pool elevator at Gretna was built in 1950. Its 50,000-bushel capacity was enlarged in 1967 with a new crib annex with room for another 70,000 bushels. Still more space was acquired through the Pool purchase of Federal Grain elevators in 1972, and the conversion of its elevator into a second annex. The railway line between Altona and Gretna was threatened with closure in the early 1980s but, after public outcry, it was saved and upgraded in 1985. It would prove a temporary reprieve. CPR abandoned the line on July 31, 1996, prompting the elevator to close the same day. It was later sold and used for private grain storage.
Photo: Gordon Goldsborough
Cranmer_UGG_cmyk.jpg
A United Grain Growers elevator at the railway siding of Cranmer, on the CPR line between Goodlands and Waskada, was built to replace an earlier one that collapsed suddenly in September 1928. It opened for business in 1929 and was expanded with a crib annex in 1954. Seen here in 1971, a second elevator in the background was built in 1927 by the Matheson-Lindsay Elevator Company and owned successively by the Province Elevator Company (1928) and Reliance Grain (1939) before being purchased by UGG in 1948. Both closed in December 1975 and were demolished.
Photo: University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections
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.
Goldsborough is interested in hearing all sorts of experiences about the elevators — funny, sad, or anything in between. Readers willing to share their stories can leave messages at 204-474-7469.
