"Grain Elevators-More than Meets the Eye" By Dorothy Field In Legacy Spring 2001

A country grain elevator silhouetted on the horizon is the quintessential image of the prairies. It is stark, simple, and striking—an appropriately vertical punctuation of the emphatically horizontal landscape. The simplicity of this image is seductive. It invites generalization from the visual qualities of the structure to other facets relating to grain elevators' functions. But beware temptation! There is much more to grain elevators than meets the eye.

Superficially, grain elevators are tall, featureless boxes with their greatest architectural interest in their roofline-generally a monitor style, although hipped roofs were common before the early 20th century. This is the extent to which most people, especially those from outside the prairie provinces, are familiar with grain elevators. The internal workings and external arrangements are at best a mystery and at worst of no interest.

Internally, a grain elevator is a machine for lifting, sorting, and loading a variety of type and grades of grain. To accomplish these functions, it is equipped with conveyors, bins, spouts, and a multitude of mechanical devices. These are arranged in an efficient configuration and operated using simple, easily repaired controls. A counter-weighted, hand-operated manlift is always present, giving access to the workings located high up under the roof—not a feature for the faint of heart or the claustrophobic. Taken together, the internal workings of the elevator of the elevator are a marvel of mechanical ingenuity and efficiency.

In addition to the main part of the building, grain elevators had a variety of ancillary structures. The drive shed was directly attached to the elevator, to allow wagons to be driven inside to weigh and unload grain. Vehicles drove up a ramp into the shed and dropped their load through a grate in the floor. They would be weighed before and after dumping, to determine the size of the load. The grain would then be graded and elevated to the appropriate bin for storage. Their load delivered, vehicles drove straight out and down another ramp.

The grain elevator agent's office was located a short distance away, often linked to the elevator by a raised walkway. An engine room in the same building supplied the energy to move the grain within the elevator. A separate shed provided safe storage for fuel. With no indoor plumbing, an outhouse was a necessary part of the site plan for an elevator, too. This last structure was often combined with the fuel or other storage facilities. Items for sale to farmers—flour or coal, for instance—were stored in yet more sheds of various types.

Although elevators are often depicted in isolation, they were actually rarely alone. Rather, they were an important part of the prairie communities. Always on a rail line, elevators were usually close to the railway station. Often, the main commercial street either faces the railway or was perpendicular to it. The elevator agent was a person of some stature and certainly would have been one of the best-informed people in town. Agents often lived in company-owned houses; in this way the grain elevator complex extended beyond the main site into the community.

Though appearing as "prairie sentinels" in countless works of art and literature, elevators might be more appropriately characterized as "prairie meeting points," Beneath a deceptively simple skin, a complex machine hummed at the center of a web of relationships that spread throughout the prairie farm community. Country grain elevators are anything but simple when the symbolism and stereotypes are stripped away.