Flashback to May 2014: the Team is on a grain elevator tour of southwest Saskatchewan and having a blast. We saw and documented more, but it’s Prairie Sentinels that we came for. Many were visited and the one seen this day is found in the small town of Cadillac (south of Swift Current). There used to be many more elevators in this town, and now there’s one.
This is a repost of an article from ten years ago recently lost to a big system crash. Rather than restore from backups, it got a do-over and is presented as new. The writing needed cleaning up anyway and some new information was added. Some of the original photos were reused along with a few captured more recently. Naming conventions, cause we’re all over the map: Saskatchewan Wheat Pool = the Pool or SWP.
Prairie Sentinels: Cadillac Saskatchewan – reposted from 2014. Pop history with Chris Doering & Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd)
Thanks to “Ross Hamilton” for helping out and sponsoring this post. Be like Ross…
The structure dates from 1958 and replaced an earlier elevator, from 1917, that once stood on the same spot. Some mechanical components were taken from the old one and reused in this replacement structure. The building received some significant renovations in the latter half of the 1970s and at least some of those steel bin annexes flanking the structure were added around this same time. The one pair looks to be quite old.
2014: The last grain elevator in Cadillac Saskatchewan.
This elevator once belong to the the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and some of the old signage remains. It appears the Pool used it until around 2000 and then sold to a private individual (a farmer) who uses it for grain storage. It seemed in use and kept up when we saw it on this first and any subsequent visits.
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The elevator still sits along a railway siding but it last loaded railcars back in its Pool days.
The building still bears the old mineral red/brown colour common to most elevator firms in the old days. Starting in the 1960s the various companies, the Pool included, adopted new paint schemes that were unique. Think of it as a way to visually separate themselves from the competition and the Pool choose a silvery-white colour as theirs.
The earlier elevator that once stood here was built for the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company. The Pool, founded in the mid-1920s, acquired that firm and their network of grain elevators later that same decade.
Both the SWP and earlier SCEC were farmer owned cooperatives. The Pool went on to become the largest grain handling firm in all of Canada and just about every town with rail service across Saskatchewan, had at least one elevator belonging to the company.
The SWP merged with a rival in 2007 and in that it lost both its name and co-operative status. By then the era of the iconic small town wood-cribbed prairie grain elevators like this one was already over. Most fell in the 1990s to early 2000s period and the majority were quite old by this point. A good number were demolished but a few like this one were sold off.
Their replacements are often large inland terminals, located at strategic places along the0 busier railway lines. Now farmers have to sometimes drive hours to deliver their grain instead making a short run to the nearest town.
The Great Western Railway owns the track here. The company dates back to 2000 and operates a number of branch lines in the area around Cadillac (several 100 kms worth). By the 1990s the original owner of the track, the Canadian Pacific Railway, wished to ride itself of low profit grain branch lines. It sold what it could to more efficient short line operators (some lines, like this one) or abandoned them altogether (mostly).
The main commodity the GWR carries is of course grain and there are many producer loading sites along the line (some using old elevators). Like many short line railways, they store surplus rail cars and sometimes on the grain elevator siding here in Cadillac. The railway arrived in town in 1913 and this section was once the Canadian Pacific’s Shaunavon Subdivision.
In the past there used to be as many as seven grain elevators in Cadillac. Hard to to believe! There is no real physical evidence to show they ever existed and old photos are the only testament to their existence.
Many of the other elevators early on belonged to a number of small and obscure grain handling companies, who in many cases owned one or perhaps a few elevators at most. Later many of these were acquired by larger firms like United Grain Growers and Pioneer Grain.
By the 1970s, the only companies operating in Cadillac were the SWP (this elevator) and Pioneer Grain (3 elevators acquired second hand). By the mid-1980s Pioneer sold the remaining two elevators to the Pool, who subsequently tore them down.
A pair old grain haulers were seen parked beside the elevator on our first visit. One is a 1973-81 era tilt cab model Chevrolet and the other, also from that maker, is a C-series conventional from 1973-88(or 89) period. The former is a fairly rare model while the other is probably the most commonly seen (old) grain truck we come across. We see them all the time and a few are still hard at work.
It looked like both were still used, but that’s only an observation. While old trucks like this can still find employment on some farms, the ever-growing size of most operations means full sized rigs pulling super-b-train trailers are what’s needed now. Economies of scale dictate that you have to go big or perish.
We found a cat living in the Cadillac elevator, or rather it found us. The kitty would purr loudly and shadow our every move. It seemed content but would never get too close. Many grain elevators have a resident cat and they’re usually brought in to help keep mice under control. We later found out the puss had a name, Lightning (see below).
My father is the owner of the elevator in Cadillac and him and my late grandfather, Tom, take pride in owning what is now Cadillac’s only elevator left standing! These photos are great and I wanted to leave my comment to know that your photos are seen by people and made me quite proud to see something so close to me and my family on your site. P.S. The kitty is also ours, her name is Lighting, my little cousin gave her her name and she keeps the elevator free of mice for us. 🙂 – Takalia (11/2014).
2014: It dates back to 1958.
Cadillac was founded around the time the railway arrived and today is home to around a hundred people. In addition to this grain elevator, there are a number of interesting buildings into town and this included a wonderful old school. There’s a nice hotel too and if you’re following our side-project (with art photographer Rob Pohl) you’ll see it appears in an episode of the Beer Parlour Project (new tab). Look for it!
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Date of adventure: May 2014, July 2017, August 2021 and June 2024. Location: Cadillac, Saskatchewan. Article references and thanks: Book – Cadillac Prairie Heritage and the Great Western Railway.
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