This is Shonts

There’s quite a contrast here. On one side there’s an ancient grain elevator, all old and weather beaten but still solid and unmoving, standing where built over a century ago. And on the other there’s a modern railway with a singular function, the moving of goods. Watch the freights run long, fast and damn frequent here, high-tech locomotives on point dong their best Indy-Car impersonation. It’s modern tech rubbing elbows with some hold over from another time, something far removed from today and we’re here to take in this most interesting scene…if for only a half hour or so. It’s late spring 2018 and we’re on the ground in Shonts Alberta.

Before we start – there’s a lot of missing history and sketchy information in regards to the elevator and we fully expect we’ll have to update this post as we dig deeper and new data comes to light.

The Town: if there ever was one here it never amounted to much. At best we think Shonts was a siding along the tracks with a couple grain elevators and perhaps a few houses nearby. If there was a store or post office, or anything else business wise here, we couldn’t find records of it (then again, there’s little written of the place).

Here’s how it came to be known as Shonts: ”The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway established a station here in 1909 and named it after Theodore Perry Shonts (1856-1919), president of several US railroads, who was chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission (1905-1907) set up to study potential construction of the Panama Canal.” (And breath). (Place Names of Alberta. Volume III, by Tracey Harrison).

The Railway: The “GTP” came through circa 1909 – but you already knew that. This was the firm’s east/west mainline that when completed ran west from Winnipeg, through Saskatoon, and Shonts, then on to Edmonton before hitting the coast in Vancouver and Prince Rupert. The line was an ambitious scheme and built to high-standards, but soon found itself on shaky ground financially. Around 1920 it was folded into government controlled Canadian National Railways, along with some rivals (in this west, Canadian Northern). Today it’s the CNR’s main transcontinental track. The firm is no longer a “crown corporation”.

Freights are frequent seemingly coming without break every fifteen to twenty minutes all day and night long. I don’t think they could fit another on the tracks if they tried. We counted and most ran one hundred to two hundred cars long. And they move, easily hitting eighty to a hundred clicks per along this stretch.

They announce their arrival with a wailing toot-toot, fly past whipping up dust and debris as they go, then in a heart beat they’re gone. How does something so massive move so nimbly?

Via Rails Canada’s “Canadian” uses this track. That poor train is shadow of its former self, Via’s unloved step child. We took a trip with them some months after visiting Shonts (and even saw the elevator from the train), a trip we so seriously regret. Stay tuned on this (update here: Crazy Time in Coach, on Via’s Canadian – hilarity ensues!)

Most of the freights passing are pulled by the CNR’s front line power, beasts weighing hundreds of tons and pumping out four thousand plus horses, some so new they’re still bright and shiny (but won’t be for long). CN has some of the most level track on the planet (hmm, maybe those flat-earthers are on to something) and so are able to pull super long trains with only a couple engines. Rival to the south, the CPR, is at a real disadvantage in that respect and has a hilly profile in comparison.

The Elevator: Info’s a bit sketchy, but we know a little bit. From what we understand the building dates from around 1910 and is pretty typical of the era. The original owner was Hannan and Carver Grain Company (one doc lists it as Bannan and Carver) a company we found nothing about. If one looks closely the old lettering can still be seen.

Later, so in the late 1910s-late 1920s period, a firm called Northern Grain Company* took it over – they had a modest network of elevators in the province. Sometime in the late 1940s (1947 is most often mentioned), Northern Grain sold out to the Alberta Wheat Pool, then and for most of its history, the largest player in the Alberta Grain Industry. Near every small town in the grain belt had a Pool Facility. Old and faded lettering from these later firms can also be seen on certain sides of the Shonts elevator.

Seems the AWP continued to use the building for a while, but it’s suggested they stopped sometime in the 1960s. At that point it was sold to a local farmer for use as a grain storage facility. The name Killearn Farms appears on one side, but this, we’re told, was an earlier owner. Seems its changed hands at least a couple times since. It was used up until recently for grain storage from what we’re told and is said to be mechanically and structurally sound, even if it looks a little rough. Broken windows in the cupola will allow pigeons in – and we know what kind of mess they can make.

A town’s names was always emblazoned across the sides of an elevator. You always knew where you where! Someone’s changed Shonts to Shorts on one side and added “Dirty” above. It badly faded though and is hard to see in the photos. A busy highway runs right beside the elevator. Back when it was used commercially there used to be a rail siding out front. That’s long gone – no signs of it in the grass either.

In the past there used to be a second grain elevator in Shonts. Interestingly, it still exists in Calgary’s Heritage Park many hundreds of clicks away – what a job it would have been moving it! This was a “Security Elevator”, built about the same as this one, that too was folded into the Northern Elevator firm and later the Pool before packing up and heading south in the 1960s. Read all about it here…Prairie Sentinels – Heritage Park Calgary.

The road calls. We’ve got some old train equipment to document in another nearby town then the following day and into the next, one long but most enjoyable gig, recording a huge pinball event in Edmonton. But that’s another story as they say.

*Some records mention the elevator later belonged to “National Elevator Company” (sometimes National Grain Company), post Hannan and Carver, which given the history we know so far makes little sense. The path that second firm took was in an entirely different direction from what we know. We suspect the old faded Northern lettering was misread as National and it snowballed from there. Still, research continues and corrections may be forthcoming. Team BIGDoer has made boo-booes before. Yes…it happened once!

More old elevators to love…
The Last Wood Ogilvie.
Prairie Sentinels – Woodhouse Alberta – Vandervalk Farm.
Alberta’s oldest grain elevator.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date: May, 2018.
Location: Shonts, AB.
Article references: Book – Grain and Rail in Western Canada Volume 1, Book – Place Names of Alberta. Volume III. Central Alberta. Alberta Wheat Pool Records @ Glenbow Museum.

The Shonts Elevator is on private property and BIGDoer.com visited with permission. You can shoot it nicely from the road, however.

The lonely grain elevator in Shonts Alberta.

In trademark yellow waiting for the tail end locomotive.

The building sits along the CNR’s busy east/west mainline.

Another train passes – the building is over a century old.

There used to be a second elevator in Shonts – it still exists elsewhere.

Let’s go camping!

Broken windows – once the birds get in…

Old faded lettering speaks of its many owners.