Prairie Sentinel: The Story of the Canadian Grain Elevator

Bruce Grainger is head of the Public Services Department, Macdonald
Library, McGill University.

Prairie Sentinel sketches the development of the elevator system of bulk
transportation of grain on the Canadian prairies since the 1880s.
Powered by steam or small internal combustion engines, the grain
elevator eliminated human muscle power from the grain-handling system
once the grain left the farm. Grain elevators were (and remain) critical
to the economic vitality of a community. The increasing concentration of
modern giant concrete elevators in fewer towns has destroyed or undercut
the viability of many other towns on the Canadian prairies. From a peak
of 5758 licensed elevators in 1938, the number dropped to 1190 in 1996.

The architectural and cultural significance of the prairie grain
elevator is also discussed. Once dismissed as a stark commercial
structure, the traditional gabled wooden grain elevator gradually became
an architectural symbol of the region, described by Le Corbusier as a
“successful” building. The elevator has been reflected in the
region’s literature, paintings, photography, and cinema, as well as in
the usual souvenir trinkets of the tourist trade.

The author has provided numerous illustrations (many from his personal
photographic collection) of these structures, from the first elevator
built in 1879 in Niverville, Manitoba, to the massive steel or concrete
silos of recent years. One drawing clearly illustrates the unloading,
cleaning, and distribution into various bins, as well as loading of
railway grain cars—activities that made the elevator such an efficient
and functional structure. With its clear language and generous selection
of illustrations, this book will be of interest to a general audience.