Prairie Sentinels: Fort MacLeod Alberta

There were once thousands of wood grain elevators across the Canadian plains, but the numbers have thinned considerably over the years. Almost every town in the grain belt had one, or more, and long before you arrived, you’d see them off in the distance. In this post we’ll take a look at one of the survivors, the last traditional “prairie sentinel” left in the community of Fort MacLeod Alberta.

It’s fairly new, as these buildings go, but otherwise not all that different from any of its kin.

Alberta Wheat Pool No# 1 stands alone but at one time there were other grain elevators keeping it company. A second Pool elevator and two belonging to the United Grain Growers – UGG – once stood nearby in recent times. All were located to the east, so left of the structure pictured here if we’re looking from the street side. Now there’s just an empty field where they used to be and perhaps some faint memories.

For some reason this elevator has not been well documented and information a bit a bit spotty at best. It’s even a touch contradictory and as such requires a certain degree of interpretation. You can bet there will be holes too, but this happens a lot when compiling history. Nothing new here!

The elevator dates from 1964 and this makes it a late model example of design going back to the early 1900s. The majority of grain elevators of this style date from the settlement period, so the 1910s-1920s, but they continued to be built as needed with little change into the 1980s. A well proven design…or just a case of resisting change?

Newer examples were often of greater capacity, but that’s about it. The overall design changed very little over that time and they were all laid out similarly. Each was built using huge quantities of lumber (lots of 2x6s stacked flat along with huge beams) and a billion nails. Grain elevators today have morphed into huge inland terminals made of steel or concrete and nothing like their predecessors.

At one time the elevator had a twin located on its east side. This structure appears to be a 1920s built elevator either moved and mated to this building, or this building constructed right beside. Data’s a bit unclear but that’s often typical anyway. Twining elevators became a way of cheaply and easily increasing the capacity at any one shipping point. Use what you got or make due: the mantra of many penny-pinching grain firms.

There’s a large annex on the west side of the present elevator and back when the twin was still attached, another beside it. An annex was yet another low cost and uncomplicated way to increase storage capacity. It appears the twin and companion annex were removed in the 1990s. One can can look up and still see the remains of a walkway that connected the two elevators up high. Watch that first step!

The building is painted in the AWP colours of blue/green, but this structure was last owned by the firm Agricore. You can see the remains of their signs – those oval shaped things – one on the railway side and another on the annex on the street side. They never did paint over the old AWP logo since they knew the elevator was due to be replaced anyway. More on this in a moment.

Agricore, by the way, came about due to a merger between the Alberta and Manitoba Wheat Pools in the late 1990s. Around that time (1999), a large throughput steel-bin elevator built a bit to the west and replaced the one seen here. Later Agricore would become Agricore United and later still Viterra. Mergers or name changes are the norm in the grain industry and sometimes it’s hard to keep tabs on who’s who.

Old photos show this elevator in traditional mineral brown colours back in the day, but it’s not clear when repainted. The Alberta Pool did not adopt the newer scheme until later in the 1960s, but older elevators sometimes not done over until needed. In the past most firms used the same brown, but later each adopted a unique paint scheme. Marketing said give us company colours! For the Pool it’s the shade seen whereas, for example, United Grain Growers went with white and Pioneer bright orange, among others.

The other elevators mentioned that once stood nearby, included a United Grain Growers facility built in the late 1960s or early ’70s (reports differ) and torn down about ten years ago.

A second Alberta Pool facility was located right beside and dated back to the late 1910s. Earlier owned by Federal Grain, it was acquired when the Pool bought that firm. Given all unions and consolidations it was not odd for a firm to own more than one elevator in a single town. United Grain Growers had a second facility here as well, a small elevator built in the late 1910s. The two aforementioned were both gone by around 2000.

This row of elevators were once served by a rail siding on the south side but long unused, it got pulled up a few years back.

By all accounts, incidentally, this building last loaded grain about 2000-ish. The newer Viterra elevator off in the distance can handle many times the grain all the former elevators in of Fort MacLoed once did. Go big or go home and that one’s not even that big by the standards.

Present day this elevator is in private hands and presumably used for grain storage by a local farmer. This became a fate that befell many survivors and a repurposed elevator a low cost and ready to use storage facility. Storing grain, while waiting for the right market conditions, is a constant headache for famers.

Note the town’s name displayed on the side of the building and this was common practise. You always knew where you were by looking at the closest grain elevator and no doubt this an aid to the directionally challenged prairie traveller back in the day.

Fort MacLeod is along the CPR’s southern mainline (the Crowsnest Subdivision here) and sees a reasonable number of trains each day. Most traffic comes from or goes to the US and via a connection west of Cranbrook BC. Grain and potash are the major commodities moved. Right on cue a train showed while we were snapping away, an empty grain hauler headed back to whereever.

There used to be a good sized rail yard in Fort Macleod, but it’s now a memory. Like many communities the railway acted as a vital link to the outside world, but now the trains just zip on by and soon are good. Most towns owe there very existence to the trains, but that once important connection has been lost.

As we do often, we take time to stand there – we love twilight for this, for the peace and magic colours it brings – and ponder our subject. So many people directly or indirectly, relied on this very building for their livelihood. Those who worked there directly, the famers who sold their grain and the railway crews were all connected in a complex way. Now this once busy place is all quiet now.

Know more: (new windows): Grain Elevators of Alberta and Fort MacLeod Alberta.

They’re saying…

”These two are amazing!! I love following their adventures and the photography is…jaw dropping! Enjoy your working vacation, Chris & Connie!! I’m looking forward to living vicariously!” Dayna Kent (LOVE you’re enthusiasm and yes, what we do is like a vacation).

More like this…
Prairie Sentinels: Bulwark Alberta.
Prairie Sentinels – Bentley Alberta.
Prairie Sentinels – Mossleigh Alberta.

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Date of adventure: October, 2022.
Location: Fort MacLeod, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Books – Fort Macleod – Our Colourful Past, Fort Macleod – Our Colourful Past II and Alberta Wheat Pool records.

The last wood grain elevator in Fort MacLeod Alberta.

The Wheat Pool logo can still be clearly read.

A more modern facility down the tracks.

Sunset on an old prairie sentinel.

Almost on cue, a Canadian Pacific freight shows up.

It dates from the 1960s, so pretty new by the standards.

There were once others beside it.