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Looking out from the bluff above
the small whistlestop of Sharples, east of the town of Carbon, one
can visualize the way things once were in this valley, many years
ago.
Steam trains, old farmsteads, grain elevators, and numerous small
bridges over the small creek – all shared the broad coulee leading
into the badlands. A step back in time... |
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This is an image of one of the last
remaining elevators in Gull Lake, Saskatchewan. As evidenced by the
many layers of peeling paint, it has seen several owners throughout
its long life, including Veteran Grain Company and United Grain Growers.
It was common for grain elevators
to be bought and sold, and repainted, as the many early grain companies
went out of business or merged with competitors. This elevator is
typical of a smaller style of elevator in use since the 1920's. |
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Meeting Creek is a small hamlet nestled
in a quiet valley on an abandoned rail
bed between Camrose and Settler.
In recent years,
the hamlet played host to tourists on the Alberta Prairie Steam Tours,
offering tours of the restored elevators and railway station. With
the removal of the rail line, the tours have ceased to come, but the
buildings remain.
Formerly known as Edensville, it was
renamed to acknowledge its location as the meeting place of the Cree
and Blackfoot on buffalo hunts.
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This view of the hamlet of Meeting
Creek, Alberta, looking into the valley from the south, recalls to
mind the return home after a long journey or hard day of harvesting.
The charming house at the bottom of
the hill leading into the hamlet sits in front of one of the two grain
elevators and train station, capturing some of the more symbolic elements
of rural life in Alberta. This is a companion print to "At Meeting
Creek", which shows a view of the hamlet and its namesake creek
from the other side of the valley. |
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'Bread
of Life'
The window of an abandoned church
in Dorothy, Alberta frames a grain elevator standing on the brilliantly
sunlit banks of the Red Deer River.
The elevator once served the area
on the east side of the river, prior to the removal of the rail line
many years ago.
Dorothy is now a small 'ghost town'
in the Badlands of Alberta, near Drumheller.
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'A
Path Forgotten'
This companion print to "Bread
of Life", above, was taken of the exterior of the abandoned United
Church in Dorothy, Alberta on New Years Eve, 1993.
It provides a glimpse of the simple
values of the pioneers in early Alberta, and their determination to
preserve them. The church still stands, although rapidly deteriorating
from the elements.
Once a house which was moved from
Finnegan to Dorothy, the structure served as a church during 1932
- 1961.
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'Last
Harvest'
This sunset photograph of the last
elevator in Dalemead, Alberta was taken just prior to its demolition
in 1995. The train has taken the last shipment of grain, emptying
the elevator to allow demolition to proceed.
Dalemead was once a thriving little
community to the southeast of Calgary. Having lost both of its elevators
and its General Store, only a few houses now remain. |
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'Prairie
Spring'
This blustery early Spring day photograph
was taken just as the sun had broken through scudding clouds, bathing
the Herronton elevator in a brilliant shaft of light.
Herronton is a small community southeast
of Calgary, Alberta, and is one of the few remaining hamlets to still
have a grain elevator.
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'Chinook
Morning'
Taken on a quiet, chilly morning in
October, 1993, this photograph of the two elevators in Dalemead, Alberta
captures the essence of a peaceful rural Alberta morning...
A chinook arch in the sky, the Rocky
Mountains in the far distance, and frost on the glistening rails.
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'Trail's
End'
This sunset image was taken in October,
1993 from the site of what once was the end of the trail for cattle
roundups in the early 1900's. Cattle were gathered here prior to shipping
to market by rail.
Cayley is a quiet hamlet south of
High River, Alberta. Only the middle of the three elevators now remains,
and is itself threatened by the imminent removal of the rail line.
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'Railway
Avenue'
Every prairie town has a 'Railway
Avenue' - where a gallery of elevators was once lined up along the
tracks.
The three elevators in Cayley, Alberta
catch the first warming rays of the rising sun on a chilly autumn
morning.
As the hamlet awakens, the only sounds
to be heard are the fluttering wings of ever-present birds in sudden
flight.
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'Morning
Sentinel'
This is a pristine example of grain
elevator architecture - a gem which was immaculately maintained right
up until its removal months later.
To be in the close presence of these
structures can be a powerfully moving experience. One can feel
the embodiment of the quiet forthrightness
and reserve of the Western Canadian Prairies . |
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'Summer
Fallow'
This row of elevators in Hussar, Alberta
stands idle in the early-summer sun, waiting for renewed activity
with the coming harvest.
The two nearer elevators are showing
signs of their age, and are near the end of their useful life. The
larger and more distant 'Pool' elevator promises a few more years
of life in this 1996 image. |
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'Prairie
Dove'
Sharples, Alberta was once a small
'whistlestop' west of Drumheller, Alberta, nestled in the western
coulees of the Badlands.
This small elevator was once owned
by Parrish & Heimbecker (P&H), and had two 'annexes' - one on each
side of the elevator. The removal of one of those annexes, leaving
behind the hanging grain conduit, resulted in this evocative image.
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'Receding Storm'
Taken on an early Spring day in 1994, this image
of the Delia, Alberta elevators was taken just after the passing of
a brief , but intense, thunderstorm.
The wet, freshly plowed fields glisten in the returning
sun which illuminates the elevators against a backdrop of dramatic
clouds moving off to the North.
Delia is a small town north of Drumheller, Alberta.
Since this photograph was taken, all but one elevator have been demolished,
or burned, as in the recent accidental fire which destroyed several
of the Alberta Wheat Pool elevators in this landscape.
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'The Pool'
This view of the Alberta Wheat Pool elevators, Queenstown,
was taken on a hot summer day,
looking through the walkway from the manager's office to the United
Grain Growers elevator.
Queenstown is a virtual 'ghost-town' which once sported an active
community hall and garage, and is located just north of Milo, in the
southeast of Alberta.
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'Days' End'
This image is one of the first in the Grain Elevator
Series, taken in the late afternoon in Granum, Alberta, under a November
sky in 1993.
The town was about to find out that these elevators
were to be removed, early in the grain companies demolition
programs.
The elevators were indeed removed a month later, leaving the town
completely without elevators - a sad irony, given the towns
name means grain in Latin.
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'Azure'
This lone elevator has retained its
original colours and stands isolated on private land, no longer served
by the railway.
All Western Canadian elevators were
originally this colour; it was not until the early 1960's that they
were painted in the familiar distinctive colours of their owners. |