This photo from 1962 shows the three elevators operating at Altamont at that time, including two United Grain Growers elevators with markedly different paint schemes, dating from 1905 (right, built by Ogilvie Flour Mills) and 1925 (centre). In the background is the CNR train station and a Federal Grain elevator taken over by Manitoba Pool in 1972. The 1905 elevator came down in 1967 and the 1925 elevator closed in 1993, while the Pool elevator closed in 1989. The elevators, and the men who operated them, are commemorated by two model elevators at the site.
Photo: Agricore United Engineering Department
Several companies operated elevators at the railway siding of Glossop, near Strathclair, in the early days, including A. Forsythe & Company (1910s), Expert Elevator Company (1910s), Spencer Grain Company (1920s), and Western Grain Company (1930s-1940s). A wooden grain elevator that still stands, once owned by Western Grain, was acquired by Pioneer Grain when it bought the firm in 1952. Renovations included the replacement of its former red-brown colour with bright-orange paint. Around 2007, the elevator was sold to Parrish & Heimbecker who gave it the present white and black colour scheme. A wooden annex built by Pioneer on its west side, and two steel bins built for a neighbouring Manitoba Pool elevator on its east side, are now gone.
Photo: Bernie Freeman (2005)
Built between 1979 and 1980 as an experiment by Manitoba Pool Elevators, the concrete elevator at Quadra, near Miniota, has 16, six-sided silos providing a total capacity of 150,000 bushels. In 1987, a wooden grain elevator from Kenton, built in 1967, was moved beside it to provide additional storage space. The facility closed in 2002 and the annex was demolished in late 2003. In 2006, the elevator was sold to a local farmer who rebuilt a 17-car rail spot and uses it for storage and shipping.
Photo: Gordon Goldsborough (2016)
Constructed in the summer of 1938, a wooden elevator at Rignold (formerly Ridgeway) on the CNR Gladstone Subdivision, in the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie, was operated by United Grain Growers. An annex was added to it in 1955, bringing its total capacity to 82,000 bushels. The facility is believed to have been demolished sometime after 1994.
Photo: Agricore United Engineering Department, Tom Price (Mgr), provided by Glenn Dickson
A grain elevator at Binscarth, on the CPR Bredenbury Subdivision in what is now the Municipality of Russell-Binscarth, was built in 1928 by United Grain Growers. The annex was added in 1957. Both were destroyed by fire on November 8, 1978, along with an estimated 30,000 bushels of wheat, oats, barley, and canola. A nearby fertilizer storage shed was saved by local firefighters and two boxcars next to the elevator were pushed out of danger by a tractor. At the height of the blaze, a freight train roared past the burning structure. There were no injuries but damages were assessed at over a half-million dollars. The elevator was not rebuilt.
Photo: Agricore United engineering Department, Tom Price (mgr), Provided by Glenn Dickson (1966); fire Photo by Henry Graham (1978)
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.
