By Judy Larmour
Why Do Such an Expensive
and Time-consuming Inventory?
What About the Physical
Preservation of Elevators?
Abstract
The author describes the complexity and value of researching
and documenting a vanishing aspect of our prairie-the grain
elevator. |
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L'auteure décrit la
complexité et la valeur de la recherche et de la
documentation d'un élément de nos Prairies en voie de
disparition-l'élévateur à grains. |
Who remembers names such as Rose Lynn, Buoyant, Fleet, Entice,
Norma, Pivot, Wessex and Navarre? The grass has long grown over
where the elevators stood at these places and hundreds of other
elevators have fallen to a similar fate in the last two years. The
impressive rows that characterized Alberta's landscape by 1920 are
gone or quickly fading elevator by elevator, like a toothless grin
against the horizon. In 1934 Alberta boasted 1,755 licensed
elevators, but the number had dwindled to a mere 327 by the end of
1996-97, with a large percentage of these slated for imminent
demolition.
Why is this happening? It's not a new trend: elevators have
been demolished from the 1960s. Between 1971 and 1981, 141 delivery
points were taken off the map, leaving a total of 979 licensed
elevators. This new round of demolition is, however, fundamentally
different in that the country elevator as a concept is being made
obsolete. Changing trends in the grain industry, the end of the Crow
rate in 1996 and rail deregulation have resulted in the
abandonment of branch lines that had been threatened from the late
1960s. These trends resulted in a massive acceleration in the rate
of closure of elevators, as the traditional wooden country elevators
are replaced by concrete silo-high through-put regional terminals
currently under construction, which can handle 52 car trains.
In spring of 1997 the Western Canadian History Program at the
Provincial Museum of Alberta (PMA) announced a major project to
document and evaluate the physical, social and economic role played
by the grain elevator in rural communities. When I was hired as
research consultant, the enormity and complexity of researching this
vanishing aspect of our prairie economy became clear. The knowledge
and participation of my partner Les Bergen, a farmer with good
research skills, was crucial to planning and carrying out the
project.
My first task was to photo-document all elevators remaining on
their original rail site to produce an inventory for 1997. And not a
moment too soon! Using maps showing abandoned lines and former grain
delivery points, I travelled the length and breadth of Alberta to
record each elevator complex. Basic documentation followed the
regular procedures and format used for the Heritage Inventory
Program of the Historic Sites Service. This involved
taking black and white photographs of the elevator complex and its
component structures, such as annexes, warehouses and offices, from
different positions to record at least four elevations. Extensive
field notes were taken on descriptive details such as foundation
type, roof type, whether the structure was clad with metal or
siding, what structural alterations had been made, recording of
ghost signs, interior workings of the elevator, recording old-style
dump mechanisms, as well as the landscape context.
In addition, I took hundreds of colour prints and slides for the
museum's photo collection. I also shot many hours of video footage
that documents the structure of the elevators, as well as capturing
demolitions and activities such as trucks emptying their loads,
grain cars being filled, the demonstration of various procedures by
elevator agents, and the running of one of the last privately owned
gas engine-powered rope-driven elevators in operation, complete with
sound effects! Field work also included co-ordinating oral history
interviews with elevator agents, farmers, a member of an elevator
construction crew, and local information gathering.
It was a pretty hectic and very hot and dusty summer. And of
course, the weather did not always co-operate by November! Field
work included the logistics of finding a motel room that was not
booked by an oil company for its employees, avoiding getting run
over by trains and getting covered in grain dust, to finding
telephones at the right moment to co-ordinate various arrangements.
The real challenge however, was simply to keep up with the elevator
demolition crews. On all but two occasions, after several mad dashes
to the far reaches of the province, I managed to get my photographs
before the track hoe moved in.
Salvaging items from the elevators became my concerted aim. With
the co-operation of the grain companies, and sometimes the
assistance of the demolition crew, we were able to salvage a
considerable range of artifacts for the museum. These included long
lengths of the grain work, wood of the elevator leg, a kicker for
testing dockage, bin slides, air compressor taps, a car mover, a
large collection of notices from elevator walls, a hopper, sample
boxes, office furniture, distributor wheel, manlift-just about
anything that would fit in several half-ton truck loads.
In the end, 526 elevators were recorded in over 239 locations.
These included elevators still in operation, abandoned elevators and
privately owned structures.
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