Adding the Donald Hamilton Collection

Lowe Farm, MB grain elevator, Oct 1989.

I was recently contacted by Greg Hamilton, the son of Donald Hamilton. Donald had taken many photographs of grain elevators in the late 1980s and early 1990s in his home province of Manitoba, and ventured into Saskatchewan and Alberta as well. Greg asked if I was interested in scanning those photos for use on this web site. Absolutely!

There are about 20 binders of photographs, organized by elevator company. I have scanned three binders to date and have started adding the photos to this site. In some cases Donald had photos of elevators that weren’t on this site – like Birdtail, Kelloe and Cracknell – and in other cases his photos are adding to existing elevator pages.

Solsgirth, MB, June 1991. Contributed by Donald Hamilton.
Solsgirth, MB, June 1991. Contributed by Donald Hamilton.

I expect it will be a long process to absorb this collection into the site, but Grain Elevators of Canada will be a better place for it and I am very grateful to Greg for allowing these photos to be scanned and shared.

Welcome to Braeden Watson!

I want to give a warm welcome to Braeden Watson, who has joined the GEoC team with a large contribution of grain elevator photos. Braeden sent in a number of Alberta grain elevators that were not already on this site, including Dapp and Leduc among several others.

Please visit his contributor page to see more!

If you would like to contribute your grain elevator photos to be shared here, please contact me at steve@traingeek.ca.

Welcome to Robert Lundin

We have a new contributor at Grain Elevators of Canada, Robert Lundin!

Robert is a photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden who has photographed numerous elevators during his photographic visits to Canada. He has graciously allowed his photographs to be included here.

You can visit his contributor page for a list of elevators he has contributed photos of.

Welcome!

Book Review: The Great Grain Elevator Incident

The Great Grain Elevator Incident book cover
The Great Grain Elevator Incident book cover

The book “The Great Grain Elevator Incident” is a young adult novel by Kevin Miller, book 4 of a series set in the fictional town of Milligan Creek. This book is not specifically about grain elevators but they are prominently featured throughout the book.

The book follows four boys as they “concoct a wild scheme to save their grain elevators”. It follows a familiar real-life theme of a grain elevator company planning to build a large concrete grain terminal outside of town that will make the town’s historic elevators obsolete.

I received this book from the author as a review copy. I enjoyed reading the book and finished it in a couple of hours. The book reads well and the story moves right along, with a few interesting turns that I did not expect. It is not necessary to read the first three books in the series.

The cover illustration was made by Kierston Vande Krats.

The book reminded me in some ways of the well-known Encyclopedia Brown series, with a group of friends working to solve a problem.

I’d recommend this book to anyone with kids in the 8-12 year range, or even for older children or those of us who are “young at heart”.

Buy this book on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that I earn a small commission when you purchase something from Amazon using my links, at no additional cost to you. I was supplied a review copy at no cost, with no promise for a positive review.

Competition Controversy in Virden

Louis Dreyfus facility near Virden, SK, Apr 2016. Contributed by Steve Boyko.
Louis Dreyfus facility near Virden, MB, Apr 2016. Contributed by Steve Boyko.

One elevator involved in the recent sale of Louis Dreyfus facilities to Parrish & Heimbecker is being challenged by the Canadian Competition Bureau. The Bureau says the former LD facility outside Virden, Manitoba and the P&H elevator in Moosomin, SK were “close competitors”, and this purchase eliminates that competition.

Former Louis Dreyfus facility outside Virden, Manitoba, Apr 2016
Former Louis Dreyfus facility outside Virden, Manitoba, Apr 2016

Because both elevators are now owned by the same company, the Bureau says that they will no longer compete to offer farmers the best prices for wheat and canola, and that will result in lower income for local farmers.

Map of online grain elevators around Virden, Manitoba
Map of online grain elevators around Virden, Manitoba

Looking at a map of grain elevators around Virden, one can see that farmers in the Virden area have few choices for online grain elevators. The closest non P&H elevators to Virden are Cargill in Oakner, Viterra in Souris, Richardson Pioneer in Kemnay, or Cargill in Elva 80 km south.

Farmers between Moosomin and Virden appear to have no real alternative other than to drive considerably farther to one of the other elevators.

The filed notice calls on P&H to sell one of the two elevators and to not acquire any elevator in the area for 10 years unless approved by the Competition Bureau.

See Also

Book Review: Forgotten Saskatchewan

I have been looking forward to Forgotten Saskatchewan for a while now. I’ve followed author Chris Attrell‘s work for some time on his web site, and in fact he used to own grainelevators.ca before I bought it from him. I’ve admired his spectacular photos of abandoned buildings and I expected his book would be great. It didn’t disappoint.

Forgotten Saskatchewan is chock full of images of abandoned Saskatchewan. Its 144 pages feature forlorn old farm houses, weathered grain elevators, rusting vehicles, empty churches and abandoned barns. Each image was carefully created, and often feature starry skies, aurora borealis or eerie lighting.

This book is really a love letter to Saskatchewan, a tribute to the decaying beauty in its disappearing small towns.

The book was published by MacIntyre Purcell and the print quality is excellent. If I ever write a photo book, I would strongly consider this publisher. Each page features a beautiful full colour image with a descriptive caption.

A glimpse into the book

Some of the photos were clearly taken from a drone, giving a unique perspective.

There are a number of grain elevators featured in this book, including Dankin, Bents and Neidpath.

If you’re here on this site, you would probably like Forgotten Saskatchewan. You can buy it on Amazon, through McNally Robinson or at Chapters/Indigo.

This post contains affiliate links, which pay me a small commission if you purchase something through the link, at no additional cost to you.

Gone But Not Forgotten – Book Review

This is a review of the book “Gone But Not Forgotten: Tales of the Disappearing Grain Elevators” by Elizabeth McLachlan. The book is a collection of stories about grain elevators and the towns they are/were in.

The 28* stories cover all sorts of tales about grain elevators, from bringing grain to market through elevator fires and other mishaps, and include such titles as “Lead in Her Pants” and “Dam(n) Progress”. In general the stories are amusing, touching, and sometimes poignant.

* there are actually 29 stories; the last is Ms. McLachlan’s own story of being married to an elevator agent.

The book is illustrated by historical photos as well as some contributed by noted photographer Chris Stackhouse, including the stunning cover photo of the grain elevator on a farm near Woodhouse, Alberta.

You can buy the book on Amazon or your local bookstore, or maybe find it in your local library.