Nier Alberta’s Psychedelic Grain Elevator

Nier Alberta was not a town as such, but a railway siding. Perhaps they had a post office, but it was not really by definition a community with houses and businesses. Located a bit north of Calgary, it had one modest claim to fame, nothing big or in a world moving sense, but still pretty interesting.

Standing along the railway line for a time was a grain elevator – nothing odd about that on the Canadian Plains – but for a period it was painted up in a wild hippie-esque motif. It’s the “psychedelic” grain elevator of Nier and it’s been gone for decades. Let’s visit where it stood and see what we can find. Spoiler: there’s little left and nature has reclaimed the property, but still, what a fascinating comparison.

This post is from long ago and went corrupt recently (what a mess). Rather than restore from a saved copy, we rebuilt it from the ground up. We reedited the photos and rewrote the piece to be more clear. Lots of the older stuff needs a makeover like this and we’ll do them as time permits. Some of the dates in the original write up for the Nier elevator were revised slightly several times, and this made it confusing too. It’s all more clear now.

First the town – well the locality – it dates from the early 1930s. Certain sections of the Canadian West were settled rather late and even into the early 1900s there were not many people in the area. Even with Calgary close by.

Anyway, Neir Alberta “sprung” to life with the completion of the Canadian Pacific’s Crossfield to Cremona railway line. This stretch of track was completed in 1931 and with the great depression in full swing, it became one of the very last grain branches laid down. The prairie railway building boom of the early twentieth century pretty much ended here.

This line, lightly built and never that busy, closed in the late 1970s. One of the last built, recall, it was one of the first to go. Today, one can follow the old roadbed for much of the route, and it’s well overgrown in places. It passed through a number of small communities, crossed the western edge of the plains and continued on to the end of the line, where the rolling foothills begin.

The grain elevator was probably the only thing of note in Nier and it dates from the early 1930s. There’s a small conflict between various reports – so 1931 or 1933. It belonged to the firm Parrish and Heimbecker, a name well known in the industry but always a modest sized player. That company is still around.

In 1973 a paint firm did it up in those craaaaazy colours (man) – one side only – that paisley pattern popular in the counter-culture hippie movement of the preceding years. The elevator later appeared in a TV commercial for this company. Thanks to Wayne Kowalchuk, who was on the crew given the task of decorating it, and who pointed us in the right direction for this info. The earlier write up reflected dates off by a few years.

“I was one of the three painters who painted this elevator in Nier Ab for Hockey Night in Canada. Painted on one side only. The year was I believe 1974-75 and it was definitely not done in the 60s.” – Wayne October 2019. Later Wayne wrote us privately and shared some dated photos (corrected to 1973). Soon after, we found a newspaper article which corroborated the year.

The late 1960s era seemed more likely when we originally wrote the piece, and even the firm that once owned the elevator stated this. That period was the peak of the psychedelic era, so it seemed to make sense then. Revising details like this is nothing new.

Only the side in view got the paisley treatment and the rest of the elevator stayed in the original brown paint.

The resultant commercial in which it appears was broadcast during an episode of “Hockey Night in Canada”. There’s conflicting reports and several paint firms make mention as the company behind it all. More uncertainty.

“Lived down the road from this elevator. Don’t know exact date but Was painted after 1971 for sure. I think it was for Bapco paint if that helps.” – Sonja Stamp November 2021. We also heard Sherwin Williams, Cloverdale Paint and the Colour Your World chain.

Until we find a copy of the commercial or details of its making, we’ll never know for sure. We looked high and low for it – surely someone or some entity recorded or saved it, or some archive has a copy – but we came up empty.

P&H never repainted the elevator in Neir Alberta and it retained that hippie vibe right to the end. Last used in the late 1970s (concurrent with the railway line closing), it remained standing into the early 1980s. Then one day a local fire department torched it, for practice, and it was gone.

What about now?

There’s not much of anything as you’ll soon see. Remains of the old railway line, what looks to be an old train loading dock and evidence of the former road into the elevator are all clear enough. Everything’s deep in the grass but if one looks good and close, it’s all there. An outline of what looks to be the grain elevator foundation appears underfoot.

We stumbled across some cut posts hidden by the grass and these likely represent that fence line to the right in the old photo. These things together, all relatively hidden from sight, helped us align our now photo. We’re standing where another photographer did, but long ago and this makes us giddy!

The trees still have a similar profile as they did way back when and we thought it interesting as well.

Team BIGDoer sourced this photo and we were unable to attribute from where it came or who shot it. If you have an old photo you think should receive the Then and Now treatment, drop us a line. Street or landscape scenes from the 1990s or before work good. The most coveted are those demonstrating either minimal or extremely dramatic change.

Not sure how it works? Browse our Then and Now articles to see the approach. Or reach out and we’ll happily fill you in.

Know more about the design painted on the Nier Alberta grain elevator (new tab): Paisley Pattern History.

They’re saying…

“One of the great places to see great places, online! Wonderful work Chris and Connie…!” Greg Herman.

Random stuff you’ll like…
World of F.E.A.R Figure-8 (Abandoned).
The Greenhill Hotel Blairmore AB is Timeless.
Camrose Heritage Railway Station & Park.

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Date of adventure: 1980-ish and July 2016.
Location: Nier, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Wayne Kowalchuk, Selkirk (Manitoba) Enterprise Newspaper articles 1973 (they did a good write up about the Nier elevator), Book – Prairie Sod and Goldenrod, History of Crossfield & District, Government of Alberta, Jason Sailer and the late Jim Pearson.

The same spot in Nier Alberta some 35 years apart.

Not so much a town but a railway siding – old roadbed in back.

We think that centre lump is a railway loading dock.