The Last Grain Elevator in Torrington

Small towns on the Canadian prairies, like Torrington Alberta and many others we’ve visited, are no strangers to adversity. Something big happened, starting in the 1990s, that changed them all forever. It’d did happen all at once, but in the span of a few short years, the landscape changed. Things once important vanished quickly.

It was a one, two punch with hundreds of small prairie towns losing rail service, concurrent with the closing of local grain elevators. It seems every community in the grain growing regions had both, and sometimes multiples of the latter, often belonging to a number of competing firms.

The two major railways had obligations to maintain service on prairie branches prior to this time, and that’s even if they were money losers. Most lines fell into that category. The government deemed it essential that services continued and made it difficult, if not impossible to call it quits. Still, the railways wanted out and would do what they could to make it happen.

The grain companies concurred and felt a change of ways was the only path to survival. So downsizing, consolidations and a rethinking of the process. At the urging of all the big players involved, the government changed the rules. They made it easy to get out, and while some who grew the grain may have had reservations, the big companies were happy to let go.

One given the green light, branch lines were dismantled at an incredible pace and old grain elevators came down just as fast. It’s like a tsunami hit and in the end, these small towns are perhaps a bit poorer for it. Many were already on the decline and for some it was a death blow. Others took the hit and survived, but still lost a lot overall. Not many have recovered.

It’s Chris writing this and during the second half of the 1990s I was driving for an oil field delivery company and regularly roaming about rural areas. From a hurried driver’s position I witnessed the death of many grain branch lines and the elevators that formerly supported them.

While the camera was along for many of these trips, the “get it there yesterday” nature of the hot-shot business meant I had little time to stop or even slow down. Maybe a drive-by shot, but even then, not too often.

While all what we see here on this website was an interest even back then, the hard reality is one had to ignore it while working. Abandoned places: ignored. Trains: ignored. All else: ignored. The only priority was getting the load to the consignee and all else be dammed. No matter how frustrating and disappointing it became.

That gorgeous abandoned farm…dead ahead and then in the side-view, getting smaller and smaller till it’s gone…forget about it. Sure enough the next time through it had vanished…that happened time and again. No, drive past and there’s no time.

Still, every now and then, if the stars aligned right, there was sometimes a chance to stop. Like on an empty return trip. That’s what happened here on a late fall or early winter day of 1997 in Torrington Alberta. It’s a rough guess date, based on notes of the time.

These images are from scanned 35mm prints (really bad ones) and show the town’s grain elevators near the end. One is already gone and the second is soon to follow.

There’s the target ahead, in Torrington, a group of grain elevators partly demolished and a welcome chance to stop. I noticed these on the drive in and the hope was they’d still be standing on the return leg. Bingo – the workers had yet to finish the job.

Finally, it’s a chance to break out the camera and document something, instead of having to let it go. Driving passed something interesting, but being unable to stop was pure torture.

The first elevator was already in ruins by this point and just a pile of splintered wood. It once belong to Pioneer Grain. Not far away, a second Pioneer elevator was facing the same fate. Equipment was busy tearing it apart and while a sad event, it’s strangely fascinating at the same time. Glad I got to be witness to the event and record a bit of it. Still, I couldn’t hang around for it to fully fall.

The blue colour of the second Pioneer elevator tells us it’s a former Alberta Wheat Pool facility. Each firm had company colours which helped them stand out and this makes identification (or lineage) pretty easy. Usually. However, elevators often changed hands from company to company, so to find one in the wrong company colours isn’t unheard of.

That said, this structure is the Pool’s 1978 built elevator, which Pioneer acquired at some point in the early to mid-1990s(?). You’re looking at a late model wooden grain elevator here and by the 1980s, the last were built. This one had a short life. That gouge affords us a good look into the heart of the building and see the lay out.

The demolished Pioneer elevator in front dates from the early 1930s (about the time of Torrington’s founding). At one time Pioneer had other elevators here, also dating to the early 1930s and with rather long and complicated lineages. These were gone in the 1980s. A second older (early 1930s) Alberta Wheat Pool elevator stood in town as well, but it was gone by the mid-1980s.

At the peak (1930s), there were over 1700 traditional style wooden grain elevators scattered throughout Alberta. By the time I visited Torrington, there were well-under 400 and the numbers quickly shrinking. At time of this post (2012, when originally written), there were perhaps a hundred and forty-ish.

We’re only counting traditional wooden elevators used to ship out grain by rail. Fast forward to 2025 and the numbers are lower still.

The grain still moves by train – it’s the most efficient way after all – but now giant inland terminals have taken the place of the small town grain elevator. They’re massive concrete and/or steel structures visible from kilometres away and able to process huge volumes. Instead of loading a few rail cars at a time many can fill a complete train in one pass.

They’re smaller in number and further apart, but of course more efficient. Before the trains came the grain and now the grain comes to the trains. Sometimes from a great distance away.

Torrington was founded roughly concurrent with the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Wimborne branch (Acme Subdivision), in 1930. That line lasted into 1996-ish (reports differ) and by my visit the tracks were already gone. Today, Torrington is home to about two hundred and twenty some people and has Hamlet status. While the loss of the railway and grain elevators was a blow, they seemed to have toughed it out better than some. Today, the town is not all that different compared to the 1990s, when our photos were captured.

This post goes back to 2012 and one more of many lost to a database crash from a few months ago. Rather than restore from backup, it got a complete make-over – a rewrite, revisions and so on – but using the original images. Of course, since the subject is long gone. Other lost posts will be reviewed on an individual basis and if still relevant, will get a similar treatment before reposting.

Know more about the town (new tab): Torrington Alberta.

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Date of adventure: Late 1997.
Location: Torrington, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: UofC Archives, Medicine Hat & District Genealogical Society and the late Jim Pearson.

The last days of the last grain elevator in Torrington Alberta.

Looking out from remains of another.

That colour marks it as a former Alberta Wheat Pool facility.

On the abandoned railway line.

Not long after, it was all history.