I didn’t know a whole lot about Saskatchewan before I moved here. I drove through parts of the province, then and again, and always would look for landmarks, to get my bearings.
Sure, when you pass through towns like Battleford you see a giant baseball bat, or you catch a glimpse giant prairie lilies, passing Melville, and I hear Davidson has a giant coffee pot, but many of the giant objects of Saskatchewan aren’t visible well before you get anywhere near them. Landmarks that fit that description are none other than classic wooden grain elevators.
On long road trips I consider old grain elevators a metaphorical dove with an olive leaf in its mouth, and a harbinger of a place to stop, take a leak, grab snacks and get some gas for a near-empty tank.
There’s something inviting, homey and pastoral about classic grain elevators, with their barn-like exteriors and pitched roofs. I haven’t been around long enough to get sentimental at the sight of them, but I can appreciate how such things can promote that sort of feeling.
I’d bet almost anyone reading this can think of more than a handful of towns and villages in Saskatchewan that have their presence announced by one of those wooden behemoths, looming over train tracks, casting the biggest shadows you’ll see on a long drive through rural Saskatchewan.
But since the grain elevators, many of which are no longer in use, are falling into disrepair, many may not be around to serve as informal distance markers for Prairie travellers.
This matter is so urgent, that the National Trust for Canada has included them in their top ten endangered places list. New technology has left many old fashioned grain elevators obsolete, according to the National Trust for Canada’s website, and because of that, many of them are being torn down before they become liabilities and eyesores.
My first impulse around abandoned grain elevators, of course, reckons back to my delinquent days, when I had a burning urge at all times to explore abandoned buildings. We didn’t have as many of them back in Nova Scotia, but when I found one, I got right to it, packing a backpack, bringing snacks and wielding a flashlight and crowbar, endlessly poking around.
That was hazardous enough when it was limited to derelict barns and schools, and at one point, an entire abandoned mall in Bridgewater, NS. But one look at some of the older and, far less, gracefully aging grain elevators, and dangers far worse than I faced in any of my escapades as a young fella are painfully evident.
Today, fewer than 14 per cent of the wooden grain elevators in Canada remain, There are about 420 grain elevators, terminals and flour mills still kicking around in Saskatchewan.
I can’t be the only person who’s ever driven past one of those things, with their idle, antiquated equipment lying around in some spots, and their proximity to the highway, and felt an urge to snoop around. Anyone with a mind for business and profit could easily capitalize on that.
What the province ought to do is take what historical agricultural infrastructure we have left and make them into tourist traps. I mean, municipalities, the rail companies and province are already talking about ways to preserve them. Why not take it to the next step? Refurbish them. Block off and clean all the hazards and liabilities. Provided the right insurance policy is in place, make a few of them into bars. (Okay, maybe that’s taking it too far, but you get the idea.)
That’s an instant boost in economic activity for rural towns and villages that are in need of it, due to the fact that, statistically, people are tending to leave smaller places for larger centres.
This is hardly the time to suggest further infrastructure spending, given our provincial deficit. But the act of refurbishing old grain elevators, itself, will be an economic boon. The government can tender the work out to local contractors and give people, likely out of work, something to do while our resource values are still recovering.
But if we don’t act fast, our grain elevators are going to bite the dust, huge pieces of history and heritage will be gone and there’ll be even less to look at on a long drive.
