The first Manitoba Pool elevator at Goodlands was built in 1928 and renovated in 1971. Eleven years later, the Pool “A” elevator at Deloraine (built in 1949) and a crib annex from the elevator at the nearby siding of Dalny were moved to its west side. Three steel tanks replaced the original elevator in 1985. The CP railway line was abandoned in 1996 and the elevator was closed in 2000. It is now used for private grain storage.
Photo: Gordon Goldsborough
An elevator at Millwood, southwest of Russell near the Saskatchewan border, was built in 1957 by Manitoba Pool to replace a 55-year-old elevator destroyed by fire the previous year. It was closed in July 1971 and later removed from the site. A concrete monument, sitting on what appears to be a remnant of the former elevator, lists the names of founding directors for the local Pool Association.
Photo: Gordon Goldsborough
A 72,000-bushel elevator at Katrime, on the CNR line 22 miles northwest of Portage la Prairie, was built by Manitoba Pool in 1953 to replace a smaller elevator. A crib annex was built beside it in 1969, increasing total capacity to 174,000 bushels. Extensive renovations between March and August 1986 included installation of an electronic scale, a larger driveshed and office, and replacement of wooden legs by steel ones. The facility was closed by Agricore in 2001 and the siding tracks were removed. It continues in use for private grain storage.
Photo: Gordon Goldsborough
When this photo was taken in 1962, St. Claude had two United Grain Growers elevators. The older one, in the background, was built by Ogilvie Flour Mills around 1914. Sold to Manitoba Pool in 1959, it was traded to UGG the following year. The younger elevator in the foreground was built by UGG in 1927 to replace an earlier structure purchased from the provincial government. Also visible on the extreme left is a common fixture of many elevators in earlier days: a coal shed to supply local residents with this once-important, now obsolete heating fuel. Closed around 1991, both elevators have been gone for years.
Photo: University of Manitoba Archive & 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.
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.
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