Prairie Giants

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Much as church steeples overtop and dominate the little towns of Europe, grain elevators tower over the small towns of the Canadian Prairies somehow shaping their very character. The elevator is, perhaps, one of the most familiar symbols of Canada to the rest of the world. Nonetheless, the days of glory of these giants seem ended. The peak year for grain elevators was 1938, when there were 5758 licensed elevators on the Prairies. In 1985 there were 1956 serving in three provinces. The Depression years, that sent so many failed farmers to the cities, left many of the elevators deserted — wooden structures, shaken apart by the punishment of once enormous loads and harsh Prairie winters.

When the first elevators were built, no thought was given to aesthetics; they were quite simply practical structures with a purpose. It was not until 1920, when artist Alexander J. Musgrove painted The Prairie Sentinel, a water-color of an elevator, that observers began to realize the unique, lonely beauty of this symbol of the Canadian West. Collected in this handsome volume are grainy black-and-white photos of the “old days” from 1879 to the 1950s, and brilliant plates of the elevators today, depicted in all types of weather.

The grain elevator has been described as “an object of visual romance, an expression of our feeling for our Western homelands.” While they remain, there are “giants” in the land.