Today the former Fairchild Building is now a residential building featuring loft apartments.

John Deere during the pioneer days in Manitoba

Deere’s Prairie distribution was performed by a local company in the early years of the wheat boom

The John Deere Company’s involvement with Man­itoba agriculture began with an initial shipment of plows and other cultivation tools to Winnipeg in April of 1878. However, it is suspected that previous to 1878, homesteaders in Manitoba had bought implements in the U.S., including John Deere implements and brought the equipment to Canada. At the time

A wooden elevator at Holland was built in 1927 by a local co-operative working with Manitoba Pool Elevators. Its modest 50,000-bushel capacity was enlarged with a squat 75,000-bushel balloon annex in 1952 and a taller 85,000-bushel crib annex in 1958. The elevator was renovated thoroughly in 1982 and the balloon annex was removed around 1994. It survived the transfer to Agricore in 1998 but closed in early 2001 and was demolished in December 2003.

PHOTOS: This Old Elevator: July 2017

The Manitoba Historical Society wants to gather information about all the grain elevators in Manitoba

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


Greg Steele, Before Brandon exhibit guest curator, displays a replica paddle styled similarly to what would have been used by voyageurs during the fur trade in the Brandon area.

Before Brandon was the Wheat City

Brandon was established as a city in 1882, but trading outposts along the Assiniboine River predate that mark by decades and are the subject of a museum exhibit at the Brandon General Museum and Archives

In most tellings, Brandon is a city that appeared from nowhere, fuelled by agricultural settlement. In 1881 it was a single shanty, and just 12 months later it was the province’s first western city, the Wheat City. Local history buffs will recount how rail plans were moved 50 kilometres south in the 1870s, in line

There were four elevators at Elgin when this photo was taken in 1981. The 30,000-bushel elevator in the foreground, built in 1928 by the  Canadian Consolidated Grain Company, had two balloon annexes and  fertilizer shed when it was sold to United Grain Growers in 1959. It  closed in 1985 and was demolished. The 50,000-bushel Manitoba Pool  elevator and annex beside it dates from 1926, while the side-by-side  Paterson elevators in the background consisted of a smaller one built  here in 1923 and a larger one brought from Wakopa in 1966. The Paterson  elevators were sold to Pool in 1981. The following year, the smaller one  was demolished as the larger one was renovated extensively and a modern  crib annex was built beside it. Today, only the former Paterson elevator  and its annex remain at the site, in private ownership.

PHOTOS: This Old Elevator: June 2017

The Manitoba Historical Society wants to gather information about all the grain elevators in Manitoba

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

Star Mound School with pioneer dedication monument.

Celebrate Canada’s past — visit Star Mound School

Located in south-central Manitoba the school is one of the oldest remaining of its kind

Recently, my husband and I visited Star Mound School in the south-central part of Manitoba, which now operates as a museum. It is located northwest from the village of Snowflake (GPS co-ordinates N49.05975 and W98.72491). Also called Nebogwawin Butte and Merry Dance Hill, Star Mound is thought to be a glacial moraine from the time


In July 1972, a Manitoba Pool elevator at Rounthwaite, on the CNR Wawanesa Subdivision in what is now the Municipality of Oakland-Wawanesa, was destroyed by fire. It had been purchased from Federal Grain shortly before the fire and was to have been repainted in the new corporate colours a few days later. A new elevator was constructed between 1974 and 1975 and designated as Pool B, joining a Pool elevator dating back to 1928, seen in this photo from October 1978. When the railway line was abandoned in December 1983, the old elevator was demolished and the new one was moved to Nesbitt. It operated there until it was sold into private ownership. The railway line at Nesbitt was removed in mid-2016.

PHOTOS: This Old Elevator: May 2017

The Manitoba Historical Society wants to gather information about all the grain elevators in Manitoba

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

Built in 1937, with a crib annex added in 1956, a 125,000-bushel  elevator at Lowe Farm, in the RM of Morris, was operated by Manitoba  Pool and, after 1998, by Agricore. In 2001, it was sold into private  ownership along with several others around the province. It was put up  for sale again in late 2014, along with the former Pool elevator a few  miles away, at Homewood.

PHOTOS: This Old Elevator: April 2017

The Manitoba Historical Society wants to gather information about all the grain elevators in Manitoba

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

A 30,000-bushel elevator at the railway siding of Birdtail, on the northeast edge of the Waywayseecappo First Nation near Rossburn, was built and operated by the British America Elevator Company. Sold to Manitoba Pool in 1929, the elevator closed in December 1974 and was later used for private grain storage. Its railway line was abandoned in 1996 and the building was destroyed by fire on the evening of October 13, 2008. The cause of the fire was undetermined.

PHOTOS: This Old Elevator: March 2017

The Manitoba Historical Society wants to gather information about all the grain elevators in Manitoba

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


Grandview’s Main Street is missing a longtime fixture in the local community with the closing of the Grandview Exponent newspaper after 117 years.

Last edition of 117-year-old rural newspaper hits newsstands

The Exponent in Grandview published its last edition February 28. It first rolled off the presses March 7, 1901

Residents of Grandview have read the last edition of their weekly local newspaper, publishing weekly for well over a century. The Chaloners, owners of the Exponent announced on the front page of the February 28 edition that this would be its last after 117 years in business. It marks the end of an era in

A 35,000-bushel grain elevator in Grandview, seen here in 1969, was built around 1920 by United Grain Growers. An annex built during the Second World War was used for nearly 40 years. In 1953, a new 70,000-bushel elevator was built beside the older elevator, replacing a flour shed and coal bins at the site. A 125,000-bushel cribbed annex was  built beside the new elevator in 1961 and, 10 years later, the older elevator was repaired and converted to an annex. The wartime annex was  demolished in 1981 and later the old elevator annex. The remaining  structure closed on July 1, 2000 and was demolished in late November 2000. Grandview’s last elevator, built in 1950 by Manitoba Pool, was demolished in November 2009.

PHOTOS: This Old Elevator: February 2017

The Manitoba Historical Society wants to gather information about all the grain elevators in Manitoba

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