Art Show Photo 1

We each hung two photos yesterday morning for our art show. This is the first of mine. It is an abandoned grain elevator from Bents, Saskatchewan, circa 1929.

Elevators similar to this one dotted the prairie landscape every 7 miles along the newly laid railroad track. The reason for 7 miles is that was the distance a horse could travel to haul grain to market. Horses with their load of grain, and later trucks, would drive into the door on the left hand side and the farmers would dump their grain, before leaving through a door on the right hand side. The grain would be lifted using a pulley system, up to a chute that would deliver the grain into waiting rail cars where it was taken to market.

Shortly after the rain line was constructed, the Great Depression hit, and farmers were hit particularly badly as without grain, their crops would not grow. Although this elevator survived the depression, it could not survive the farm truck. No longer restricted by the distance a horse could haul grain, larger more cost efficient elevators could be spaced further and further apart. Ultimately, this operation was abandoned in the 1980s as the formerly majestic structure was no longer needed.