Prairie Sentinels: Coderre Saskatchewan

Team BIGDoer first visited Coderre Saskatchewan in 2014 and a decade later made a triumphant return. On the follow-up visit there were parades, speeches by dignitaries and a holiday declared. Well, the town dog showed up to see the goings on but soon left to chase a leaf blowing in the wind. Each time here we had our radar on and looking for historic things to document.

Like the old and forgotten grain elevator seen in this post.

It dates to 1924 and constructed for the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Co. Two years later, this organization got folded into the Saskatchewan Co-operative Wheat Producers network. In the 1950s the name changed to the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (aka the SWP, or simply “the Pool”), although the moniker was used informally before. The Pool: to which all SK farmers had a love and hate relationship with.

Both firms were farmer owned cooperatives and dated from 1911 (Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company) and 1923 (The Pool). The latter usually held title as the largest grain handler in all Canada. Nearly every town in the province that had rail service had an elevator belonging to the company.

Welcome to Coderre Saskatchewan.

The Pool went on to later own other grain elevators in Coderre and they were refereed to alphabetically. This one functioned their “A” facility and we’ll chat about the others in a moment.

The Saskatchewan Pool ceased to be after 2007 and that year it merged with a rival, (Agricore United) to become the firm Viterra. It ceased to be farmer owned some years before and corporate in nature. In 2013 Viterra split up and parts were acquired by a number of firms.

This elevator was rebuilt in the mid-1950s and the work apparently so substantial that some would argue it’s almost a completely new structure. The papers seen by us do not go into detail, but it’s mentioned as a big undertaking.

The Pool closed this facility in 1990 and a year or so after the railway pulled out. Note the old signage left behind, including a faded one reading “Use Pool Co-op Flour up high on the cupola. It became a tradition to put the town’s name on every elevator.

Things were changing at the time and impacted many small prairie towns like Coderre. The rural grain elevator network and the railways that carried products to market were seem as inefficient in the current form. That became the mindset and once in motion the entire industry morphed into something completely different. Gone: local small town grain elevators and the railways that served them. The communities suffered.

Came the dawn of the large inland grain terminal and these were located at strategic points along busier railway lines. While less in number, these often sprawling complexes could handle more. Much more and faster too. Instead of loading a few cars at a time, the practice for decades, they were instead designed to fill many in one pass. Sometimes dozens or other times a whole train’s worth.

The replacement grain terminals spoken of were built in the mid to late 1990s and early 2000s and concurrent with the closing of most small elevators and the grain gathering branchlines. The new terminals were often far from producers and not without controversy. This lead to an increase of both the numbers of grain trucks on the highway and their resultant size. They’re much bigger today than yesterday.

In the past the trains came to the producers but now it’s the other way around.

This elevator later functioned as a seed cleaning plant for a time. On our earlier visit that appeared to still be the case (thanks to signs), but now it looks like it’s no longer used in that capacity. We stopped at the Coderre Hotel (Coderre Bar & Grill) to check. First to scout it for the Beer Parlour Project (failed to convince them) but also to see if anyone knew of the current status of the grain elevator.

People we spoke with suggested there’s interest in preserving the structure, but that’s about all anyone knew.

There used to be three additional grain elevators in Coderre, in close proximity to this one and all were built in the 1920s. They were all similar in form and size.

One belonged to Lake of the Woods Milling Company and the Saskatchewan Pool acquired it in the late 1950s. It became the Pool’s “B” facility and used up until 1984. Another had Alberta Pacific Grain and later Federal Grain lineages. Federal’s Saskatchewan operations were then taken over by the Pool in the early 1970s and this became their “C” facility. It also closed in 1984.

The last belonged to a series of owners (Searle Grain and Federal Grain among others) before becoming a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool facility in the early 1970s (via its purchase of Federal). This became the Pool’s “D” elevator and it closed in 1980. Via mergers and acquisitions (a common occurrence in the industry) the SWP ended up owning every single elevator in Coderre.

You’ll notice a left facing arrow on the railway-side wall of the elevator in one photo and it’s just above the loading spout. This told train crews to spot cars to be loaded to the right of the structure. The siding had a slight grade and this allowed each car filled to then be rolled aside (sometimes with the assistance of a long pry bar). The arrow points downgrade.

Few grain terminals/elevators today rely on gravity to move cars and some use a cable/winch system. For others a company owned or railway supplied locomotive or specialized rail car mover is used to shuttle them around. The current trend for new terminals is to make it so the train is filled while in motion and without uncoupling.

The Canadian Pacific Railway built a line to Coderre in the mid-1920s and one of countless lightly built grain branches on the prairies. It came in from a point near Swift Current and headed east before arriving here. For a few years the community was temporarily at the end of track, but later it extended further east and to a point just south of Moose Jaw.

It functioned as the Shamrock Subdivision (named after a town just down the line) and never terribly busy. The small population in the area (and resultant small grain output) meant that even at the peak, trains typically only operated a few times per week. Passenger service was a coach tacked onto the end of a freight. This line closed in the late 1980s and today there are not many remains left to tell anyone it ever existed.

Coderre dates from the time the railway arrived and many early settlers were French speaking. It’s named after the person who ran the local post office at the time and now they’re forever memorialized.

There were once several thousand traditional wood-cribbed grain elevators in Saskatchewan and now only a few hundred are left. On our visit it 2014, it stood at about a hundred more and that shows how the numbers are constantly dwindling.

Most old grain elevators were demolished due those changes in the industry and for a time they were torn down at an incredible rate. Small elevators were replaced by larger ones. Railway lines were abandoned at a wholesale rate and don’t forget consolidations within the industry. It’s a simple explanation to a much bigger and more complex affair, but you get the idea.

“Use Pool Co-op Flour.”

Of those elevators that survived, some were converted to be used for grain storage by locals farmers and some made into seed cleaning plants, like this one used to be. A few are still used to load rail cars, some are connected to museums or historic sites and others are simply abandoned. All are interesting.

We’ve included a few images from 2014 and you’ll note two things. The elevator seems little changed and sky gloomy on both visits.

Know more about the town (new tab): Coderre Saskatchewan and the firm that once owned the grain elevator (also new tab): Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.

They’re saying…

“Chris and Connie delve into the nooks & crannies of the Canadian Prairies. They detail interesting histories accompanied with revealing photos…the results are fantastic.” Naomi Kikoak.

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Date of adventure: May 2014 and June 2024.
Location: Coderre, Saskatchewan.
Article references and thanks: The late Jim Pearson (author of the Vanishing Sentinels books), Canadian Trackside Guides, Book – From Prairie Roots, The Remarkable Story of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the Saskatchewan Bureau of Statistics, and Rob Pohl.

A gloomy day and so was the previous visit.

The old mineral brown paint is bleeding through.

Details of the driveway.

Dating back a century.

Note the arrow – we’re standing where the tracks were.

Nearby, an old wagon.

The last of four.

From 2014…

It hasn’t changed much in a decade.

This horse kept us company.

No smoking…