Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Elevator Kids

I was at the Prince of Wales Elementary School in SE Calgary today, where I met the Elevator Kids. They are in the Grades 1 and 2, and their teacher, Mrs. Jennifer George, invited me to speak to them after she had read about me in the Calgary Herald last November.





I met with the kids today, and was very impressed with the amount of knowledge they had about elevators. I showed them a slide show presentation I did on Powerpoint, and gave them a copy of the Vanishing Sentinels maps, while they sang me two very cool songs, and showed me a DVD of them going to Edmonton and talking to Gary Mar and Premier Ralph Klein.

I also received a very beautiful poster of grain elevators and a story which the last years class did... when one of the children read it to me... it took a very hard effort to prevent myself from crying. It was that touching!

After I was finished... some of the kids gave me these drawings that they had done of elevators... and they are posted below! These were done by Grade 1 and 2 students, and are very impressive!











Finally... this is an model elevator one of the kids showed me, and I believe he said that he and his dad put it together... this is a really nice job!



All in all... it was a great experience talking to the kids... just wish I had more time to spend with them! I am really glad to see someone is teaching kids about elevator history... because they are our heritage!!!

Here's their website: Check it out! http://www.galileo.org/schools/district-cbe/princeofwales/stories/index1.htm

Indus - Fulton Farms


It's odd... you can go by a location several times and never notice it... until today. This elevator is located about a mile east of Indus, Alberta on Highway 22X, east of Calgary.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Many thanks to the following people

I'd like to thank the following people:

Neil Cory and Al Clark (Info On Beaver River)
Shannon Jansen (Lamont County)
Dale Brown (Nemiskam, Fourty Mile County)
Mrs. Marion Byers (Info on Cherhill)
Donna Mae Grant (Lacombe County)
Don and Ron Law (Info on Chigwell)
The Cochrane Public Library
Noreen Robertson (Strathcona County)
Dan Pritchard (Info On Blue Ridge)
and Larry Bilbin

For all of their help in either getting me information or forwarding me onto someone who could on the history of the grain elevators in those towns.

Without your help... getting this information would have been impossible!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!

Friday, May 05, 2006

Naco, Alberta


This ghost town (literally) is located about 21 kilometres north of Cereal, Alberta, on Secondary 886. Virtually nothing of the town is left, except the old store, but this is the site of where Alberta Wheat Pool built it's second elevator in Alberta.


Here is a closeup of the plaque on the cairn.

Loverna, Sask (Now NE of Esther, Alberta)


I have been looking for this elevator since I heard about it last year. This Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator was moved from Loverna Saskatchewan to it's present location about 10 kilometres NE of Esther, Alberta around 1983-1984. It can be seen from Secondary 889 going north of Esther to Altario, looking to the east.


You may notice that this elevator is a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (No. 381), and also has part of a Federal Elevator as well.