The street I grew up on was about a mile long. At one end was the old irrigation dam that afforded us endless hours of recreation, and at the other end stood the grain elevators, like massive wooden sentinels guarding our town.
Once nearly 6,000 grain elevators stood guard over towns in the Canadian prairie provinces, with the number in Alberta peaking at about 1,800. Now, one estimate puts the number at 150 in Alberta, and that number is dwindling.
Others have set out to document and photograph grain elevators, putting together impressive collections of pictures and information that record this important artifact of prairie history. My collection is not exhaustive by any means — these are just a few photos of Alberta grain elevators I have collected in my travels and in my years as heritage writer for the Calgary Herald.
