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Shimbashi, Edward

One of the causes the late Edward Shimbashi will be most remembered for was his dedication to the mechanization of the potato industry in southern Alberta. During the Depression, Mr. Shimbashi and his father grew about 25 acres of potatoes in the Raymond area and marketed them locally and throughout Western Canada.

Mr. Shimbashi introduced the first potato harvester and piler, mechanical beet harvester and large-scale product transportation, revolutionizing the vegetable and potato industry in southern Alberta. He also purchased one of the first sprinkler irrigation systems in the area in the early 1950's.

By the mid-1970's the same operation developed 7,000 acres of land into a pivot irrigation system. With water from the Oldman River, this project turned out to be one of the largest successful private irrigation systems in Canada. Edward Shimbashi died in 1976.