A grain elevator is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the
grain trade
The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...
, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a
bucket elevator or a
pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
from a lower level and deposits it in a
silo
A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...
or other storage facility.
In most cases, the term "grain elevator" also describes the entire elevator complex, including receiving and testing offices,
weighbridges, and storage facilities. It may also mean organizations that operate or control several individual elevators, in different locations. In Australia, the term describes only the lifting mechanism.
Before the advent of the grain elevator, grain was usually handled in bags rather than in bulk (large quantities of loose grain).
Dart's Elevator
Dart's Elevator was the world's first steam-powered grain elevator. It was designed and built by Joseph Dart and Robert Dunbar in 1842 in Buffalo, New York. The elevator burned in the 1860s.
Description
Designed and built in 1842 by Dart a ...
was a major innovation. It was invented by
Joseph Dart
Joseph Dart (April 30, 1799 – September 28, 1879) was an American businessman and entrepreneur associated with the grain industry. Following construction of the Erie Canal, he is credited with conceiving the machine-powered grain elevator t ...
, a merchant, and
Robert Dunbar, an engineer, in 1842 and 1843, in
Buffalo, New York. Using the steam-powered flour mills of
Oliver Evans as their model, they invented the marine leg, which scooped loose grain out of the hulls of ships and elevated it to the top of a marine tower.
Early grain elevators and bins were often built of framed or cribbed wood, and were prone to fire. Grain-elevator bins, tanks, and silos are now usually made of steel or reinforced concrete. Bucket elevators are used to lift grain to a distributor or consignor, from which it falls through spouts and/or
conveyors and into one or more bins, silos, or tanks in a facility. When desired, silos, bins, and tanks are emptied by gravity flow, sweep
auger
Auger may refer to:
Engineering
* Wood auger, a drill for making holes in wood (or in the ground)
** Auger bit, a drill bit
* Auger conveyor, a device for moving material by means of a rotating helical flighting
* Auger (platform), the world's f ...
s, and conveyors. As grain is emptied from bins, tanks, and silos, it is conveyed, blended, and weighted into trucks,
railroad car
A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...
s, or
barges for shipment.
Usage and definitions
In
Australian English
Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
, the term "grain elevator" is reserved for elevator towers, while a receival and storage building or complex is distinguished by the formal term "receival point" or as a "wheat bin" or "silo". Large-scale grain receival, storage, and
logistics operations are known in Australia as bulk handling.
In Canada, the term "grain elevator" is used to refer to a place where farmers sell grain into the global grain distribution system, and/or a place where the grain is moved into rail cars or ocean-going ships for transport. Specifically, several types of grain elevators are defined under Canadian law, in the ''Canadian Grain Act'', section 2.
* Primary elevators (called "country elevators" before 1971) receive grain directly from producers for storage, forwarding, or both.
* Process elevators (called "mill elevators" before 1971) receive and store grain for direct manufacture or processing into other products.
* Terminal elevators receive grain on or after official inspection and weighing and clean, store, and treat grain before moving it forward.
* Transfer elevators (including "Eastern elevators" from the pre-1971 classification) transfer grain that has been officially inspected and weighed at another elevator. In the Eastern Division, transfer elevators also receive, clean, and store eastern or foreign grain.
History
Both necessity and the prospect of making money gave birth to the steam-powered grain elevator in
Buffalo, New York, in 1843. Due to the completion of the
Erie Canal in 1825, Buffalo enjoyed a unique position in American geography. It stood at the intersection of two great all-water routes; one extended from
New York Harbor
New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...
, up the
Hudson River to
Albany, and beyond it, the Port of Buffalo; the other comprised the
Great Lakes, which could theoretically take boaters in any direction they wished to go (north to
Canada, west to
Michigan or
Wisconsin, south to
Toledo
Toledo most commonly refers to:
* Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain
* Province of Toledo, Spain
* Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States
Toledo may also refer to:
Places Belize
* Toledo District
* Toledo Settlement
Bolivia
* Toledo, Orur ...
and
Cleveland, or east to the
Atlantic Ocean). All through the 1830s, Buffalo benefited tremendously from its position. In particular, it was the recipient of most of the increasing quantities of grain (mostly wheat) that was being grown on farms in
Ohio and
Indiana, and shipped on
Lake Erie for trans-shipment to the Erie Canal. If Buffalo had not been there, or when things got backed up there, that grain would have been loaded onto boats at Cincinnati and shipped down the
Mississippi River to
New Orleans.
By 1842, Buffalo's port facilities clearly had become antiquated. They still relied upon techniques that had been in use since the European
Middle Ages; work teams of
stevedores use
block and tackles and their own backs to unload or load each sack of grain that had been stored ashore or in the boat's hull. Several days, sometimes even a week, were needed to serve a single grain-laden boat. Grain shipments were going down the Mississippi River, not over the Great Lakes/Erie Canal system.
A merchant named Joseph Dart Jr., is generally credited as being the one who adapted
Oliver Evans' grain elevator (originally a manufacturing device) for use in a commercial framework (the trans-shipment of grain in bulk from lakers to canal boats), but the actual design and construction of the world's first steam-powered "grain storage and transfer warehouse" was executed by an engineer named Robert Dunbar. Thanks to the historic
Dart's Elevator
Dart's Elevator was the world's first steam-powered grain elevator. It was designed and built by Joseph Dart and Robert Dunbar in 1842 in Buffalo, New York. The elevator burned in the 1860s.
Description
Designed and built in 1842 by Dart a ...
(operational on 1 June 1843), which worked almost seven times faster than its nonmechanized predecessors, Buffalo was able to keep pace with—and thus further stimulate—the rapid growth of American agricultural production in the 1840s and 1850s, but especially after the
Civil War, with the coming of the
railroads.
The world's second and third grain elevators were built in Toledo, Ohio, and
Brooklyn, New York, in 1847. These fledgling American cities were connected through an emerging international grain trade of unprecedented proportions. Grain shipments from farms in Ohio were loaded onto ships by elevators at Toledo; these ships were unloaded by elevators at Buffalo that shipped their grain to canal boats (and, later, rail cars), which were unloaded by elevators in Brooklyn, where the grain was either distributed to
East Coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
flour mills or loaded for further shipment to
England, the
Netherlands, or
Germany. This eastern flow of grain, though, was matched by an equally important flow of people and capital in the opposite direction, that is, from east to west. Because of the money to be made in grain production, and of course, because of the existence of an all-water route to get there, increasing numbers of immigrants in Brooklyn came to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to become farmers. More farmers meant more prairies turned into farmlands, which in turn meant increased grain production, which of course meant that more grain elevators would have to be built in places such as Toledo, Buffalo, and Brooklyn (and Cleveland,
Chicago, and
Duluth). Through this loop of productivity set in motion by the invention of the grain elevator, the United States became a major international producer of wheat, corn, and oats.
In the early 20th century, concern arose about monopolistic practices in the grain elevator industry, leading to testimony before the
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...
in 1906.
[Testimony taken by Interstate Commerce Commission, October 15 – November 23, 1906, in matter of relations of common carriers to the grain trade, 59th Congress, Senate Document #278, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907, pp. 28, 34–35]
This led to several grain elevators being burned down in Nebraska, allegedly in protest.
[
Today, grain elevators are a common sight in the grain-growing areas of the world, such as the ]North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n prairies. Larger terminal elevators are found at distribution centers, such as Chicago and Thunder Bay, Ontario, where grain is sent for processing, or loaded aboard trains or ships to go further afield.
Buffalo, New York, the world's largest grain port from the 1850s until the first half of the 20th century, once had the United States' largest capacity for the storage of grain in over 30 concrete grain elevators located along the inner and outer harbors. While several are still in productive use, many of those that remain are presently idle. In a nascent trend, some of the city's inactive capacity has recently come back online, with an ethanol plant started in 2007 using one of the previously mothballed elevators to store corn. In the early 20th century, Buffalo's grain elevators inspired modernist architects such as Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, who exclaimed, "The first fruits of the new age!" when he first saw them. Buffalo's grain elevators have been documented for the Historic American Engineering Record and added to the National Register of Historic Places. Currently, Enid, Oklahoma, holds the title of most grain storage capacity in the United States.
In farming communities, each town had one or more small grain elevators that served the local growers. The classic grain elevator was constructed with wooden cribbing and had nine or more larger square or rectangular bins arranged in 3 × 3 or 3 × 4 or 4 × 4 or more patterns. Wooden-cribbed elevators usually had a driveway with truck scale and office on one side, a rail line on the other side, and additional grain-storage annex bins on either side.
In more recent times with improved transportation, centralized and much larger elevators serve many farms. Some of them are quite large. Two elevators in Kansas (one in Hutchinson and one in Wichita) are half a mile long. The loss of the grain elevators from small towns is often considered a great change in their identity, and efforts to preserve them as heritage structures are made. At the same time, many larger grain farms have their own grain-handling facilities for storage and loading onto trucks.
Elevator operators buy grain from farmers, either for cash or at a contracted price, and then sell futures contracts for the same quantity of grain, usually each day. They profit through the narrowing "basis", that is, the difference between the local cash price, and the futures price, that occurs at certain times of the year.
Before economical truck transportation was available, grain elevator operators sometimes used their purchasing power to control prices. This was especially easy, since farmers often had only one elevator within a reasonable distance of their farms. This led some governments to take over the administration of grain elevators. An example of this is the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. For the same reason, many elevators were purchased by cooperatives.
A recent problem with grain elevators is the need to provide separate storage for ordinary and genetically modified grain to reduce the risk of accidental mixing of the two.
In the past, grain elevators sometimes experienced silo explosions. Fine powder from the millions of grains passing through the facility would accumulate and mix with the oxygen in the air. A spark could spread from one floating particle to the other, creating a chain reaction that would destroy the entire structure. (This dispersed-fuel explosion is the mechanism behind fuel-air bombs.) To prevent this, elevators have very rigorous rules against smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...
or any other open flame. Many elevators also have various devices installed to maximize ventilation, safeguards against overheating in belt conveyors, legs, bearings, and explosion-proof electrical devices such as electric motors, switches, and lighting.
Grain elevators in small Canadian communities often had the name of the community painted on two sides of the elevator in large block letters, with the name of the elevator operator emblazoned on the other two sides. This made identification of the community easier for rail operators (and incidentally, for lost drivers and pilots). The old community name often remained on an elevator long after the town had either disappeared or been amalgamated into another community; the grain elevator at Ellerslie, Alberta
The City of Edmonton has experienced a series of municipal boundary adjustments over its history since originally incorporating as a town in 1892 through Incorporation (municipal government), incorporation as a city, Municipal amalgamation, amalg ...
, remained marked with its old community name until it was demolished, which took place more than 20 years after the village had been annexed by Edmonton.
One of the major historical trends in the grain trade has been the closure of many smaller elevators, and the consolidation the grain trade to fewer places and among fewer companies. For example, in 1961, 1,642 "country elevators" (the smallest type) were in Alberta, holding of grain. By 2010. only 79 "primary elevators" (as they are now known) remained, holding .
In 2017, the United States had of storage capacity, a growth of 25% in the previous decade.
Elevator Alley
The city of Buffalo is not only the birthplace of the modern grain elevator, but also has the world's largest number of extant examples. A number of the city's historic elevators are clustered along "Elevator Alley", a narrow stretch of the Buffalo River immediately adjacent to the harbor. The alley runs under Ohio Street and along Childs Street in the city's First Ward neighborhood.
Elevator row
In Canada, the term "elevator row" refers to a row of four or more wood-crib prairie grain elevators.
In the early pioneer days of Western Canada's prairie towns, when a good farming spot was settled, many people wanted to make money by building their own grain elevators. This brought in droves of private grain companies. Towns boasted dozens of elevator companies, which all stood in a row along the railway tracks. If a town were lucky enough to have two railways, it was to be known as the next Montreal. Many elevator rows had two or more elevators of the same company. Small towns bragged of their large elevator rows in promotional pamphlets to attract settlers. With so much competition in the 1920s, consolidation began almost immediately, and many small companies were merged or absorbed into larger companies.
In the mid-1990s, with the cost of grain so low, many private elevator companies once again had to merge, this time causing thousands of "prairie sentinels" to be torn down. Because so many grain elevators have been torn down, Canada has only two surviving elevator rows; one located in Inglis, Manitoba, and the other in Warner, Alberta. The Inglis Grain Elevators National Historic Site has been protected as a National Historic Sites of Canada
National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...
. The Warner elevator row is, as of 2019, not designated a historic site, and is still in use as commercial grain elevators.
Elevator companies
Australia
* ABB Grain was founded as a mutual company, the Australian Barley Board, in 1939, by barley growers in South Australia and Victoria; after demutualization, it was acquired by Viterra (see below) in 2009; Australian Bulk Alliance, a joint venture between ABB and Sumitomo
The is one of the largest Japanese ''keiretsu'', or business groups, founded by Masatomo Sumitomo (1585-1652) around 1615 during the early Edo period.
History
The Sumitomo Group traces its roots to a bookshop in Kyoto founded circa 1615 by Masa ...
, operates facilities in some areas.
* CBH Group, a co-operative company, was established by grain growers in Western Australia, in 1933.
* GrainCorp was established by the government of New South Wales
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...
in 1917, as Government Grain Elevator, and was privatized in 1992.
Canada
All companies operating elevators in Canada are licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission.
* Agricore United was taken over by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in 2007.
* Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company
The Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company (AFCEC) was a farmer-owned enterprise that provided grain storage and handling services to farmers in Alberta, Canada between 1913 and 1917, when it was merged with the Manitoba-based Grain Grower ...
merged into United Grain Growers in 1917.
* Alberta Pacific Grain Company
The Alberta Pacific Grain Company Limited began in 1900 as the Alberta Grain Company, founded by Nicholas Bawlf and associates. In 1911 Alberta Grain Co. was merged with the Alberta Pacific Company Limited to form the Alberta Pacific Grain Comp ...
was taken over by Federal Grain Co. in 1967.
* Alberta Wheat Pool
The Alberta Wheat Pool was the first of Canada's wheat farmer co-operatives in 1923.
History
Early years
In 1923, the United Farmers of Alberta met with then Attorney General John Edward Brownlee to consider setting up a Wheat Pool just in Alb ...
merged with Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1997.
* Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
was established in 1865 by W.W. Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in term ...
.
* Federal Grain was sold to the three provincial wheat pools in 1972.
* Grain Growers' Grain Company
The Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) was a farmers' cooperative founded in the prairie provinces of western Canada in 1906.
The GGGC met strong resistance from existing grain dealers. It was forced off the Winnipeg Grain Exchange and almost fail ...
merged into United Grain Growers in 1917.
* Lake of the Woods Milling Company
* Manitoba Pool Elevators merged with Alberta Wheat Pool in 1997.
* Parrish & Heimbecker was established in 1909 by the two families of William Parrish
William Linton Parrish (August 6, 1860 – February 20, 1949) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1914 to 1920 as a member of the Liberal Party.
Biography
Parrish was born in V ...
and Norman G. Heimbecker
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
.
* Paterson Grain Paterson may refer to:
People
* Paterson (surname)
* Paterson (given name)
Places
Australia
*Paterson, New South Wales
*Paterson River, New South Wales
* Division of Paterson, an electoral district in New South Wales
*Paterson, Queensland, a lo ...
was established in 1908 as the N. M. Paterson Co.
* Richardson International was established in 1857 by James Richardson; it is also known as Richardson Pioneer.
* Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company
The Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company (SCEC) was a farmer-owned enterprise that provided grain storage and handling services to farmers in Saskatchewan, Canada between 1911 and 1926, when its assets were purchased by the Saskatchewan Whea ...
was taken over by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in 1926.
* Saskatchewan Wheat Pool took over Agricore United in 2007 to form Viterra.
* United Grain Growers was taken over by Agricore United in 2001.
* Viterra was established after the take-over of Agricore United by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
Sweden
* In Sweden, the vast majority of grain elevators belong to the Lantmännen co-operative movement, owned by grain-growing farmers.
United States
* ADM Milling
* Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
* General Mills
* Monarch Engineering Co.
Monarch Engineering Co. was an American firm of Denver, Colorado, active in engineering and construction services. John A. Crook and his brother, Guy A. Crook of Falls City, were founders of the Monarch Engineering company which had its origin a ...
(builder)
* Montana Elevator Co.
The Montana Elevator Co., was founded in 1904 as a wheat farmer co-operatives for Montana with their first elevator in Lewistown, Montana
Lewistown is a city in and the county seat of Fergus County, Montana, United States. The population wa ...
* Perdue Agribusiness
* Scoular
* Smithfield Grain
* Southern States Cooperative
Southern States Cooperative is an American farmer-owned agricultural supply cooperative headquartered in the Richmond, Virginia area. Southern States Cooperative supplies small, medium, and large commercial farmers with livestock and animal feed ...
* Tyson
* United Grain Growers
Notable grain elevators
During the Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...
, one particularly well-defended Soviet strongpoint was known simply as "the Grain Elevator" and was strategically important to both sides.
This is a list of grain elevators that are either in the process of becoming heritage sites
A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage regist ...
or museums, or have been preserved for future generations.
Canada
Alberta
* Acadia Valley – Prairie Elevator Museum, former Alberta Wheat Pool
The Alberta Wheat Pool was the first of Canada's wheat farmer co-operatives in 1923.
History
Early years
In 1923, the United Farmers of Alberta met with then Attorney General John Edward Brownlee to consider setting up a Wheat Pool just in Alb ...
converted into a tea house and museum
* Alberta Central Railroad Museum – former Alberta Wheat Pool, second-oldest standing grain elevator in Alberta, moved from Hobbema
* Andrew – former Alberta Wheat Pool, restored into a museum
* Castor – former Alberta Pacific, restored into a museum
* Big Valley – Alberta Wheat Pool used as a museum complete with a train station and roundhouse
* Edmonton – Ritchie Mill, former flour mill converted into restaurants, law offices, and condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s
* Ellis Bird Farm
Ellis Nature Centre is an education & research facility at the heart of a sustainable farm. We demonstrate and promote best practices to conserve and protect wildlife and nature through our workshops, educational programs, and events. Located o ...
, built in 1937, oldest standing seed elevator in Alberta
* Esther – former Alberta Wheat Pool, restored into a museum
* Haselwood Mill – Alberta's oldest seed-cleaning mill, second on the site, privately owned, not protected, operated from the 1930s to 1960s near Bittern Lake
Bittern Lake, originally named Rosenroll, is a village in central Alberta, Canada. It is located between Camrose and Wetaskiwin, on Highway 13. The first post office opened in the home of Ernest Roper in 1899. It was known as the Village of Rose ...
, Alberta
* Heritage Acres Farm Museum
The Heritage Acres Farm Museum is an open-air museum in southern Alberta, Canada. In particular it showcases antique machinery and vintage cars. Buildings from surrounding communities have been moved to the historic site and restored to various ...
– restored United Grain Growers elevator moved from Brocket
* Heritage Park Historical Village, former Security Elevator Co. Ltd. moved from Shonts
* Kinuso
Kinuso ( cr, script=Cans, ᑭᓄᓭᐤ, ) is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada within Big Lakes County, and surrounded by the Swan River First Nation reserve. It is located approximately west of Slave Lake and 71 km east of High P ...
– United Grain Growers with original UGG logo
* Leduc – former Alberta Wheat Pool saved from demolition now a museum
* Lougheed – former Pioneer Elevator,now part of the Iron Creek Museum
* Mayerthorpe – 1966 Federal Grain Co., now an interpretive center
* Meeting Creek
Meeting Creek is a hamlet in central Alberta, Canada within Camrose County, located west of Highway 56, approximately south of Camrose.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Meeting Creek had a po ...
– a refurbished Alberta Wheat Pool, Pacific Grain elevator and CN train station
* Nanton – Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre
The Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre is a set of restored grain elevators located in Nanton, Alberta, Nanton, Alberta, Canada. The centre's goal is to preserve examples of old grain elevators to educate visitors about the town's, and Alber ...
, three elevators saved from demolition and preserved to educate visitors about the town's, and Alberta's, agricultural history
* Radway – Krause Milling Co. restored into a museum
* Raley Raley is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Brooks Raley (born 1988), American Major League Baseball pitcher
*David Allen Raley (born before 1985), American murderer
*J. Frank Raley Jr. (19262012), American politician from Marylan ...
– oldest standing grain elevator on its original site in Alberta, built in 1909, maintaining many of its original features
* Rowley Rowley may refer to:
Places Canada
* Rowley, Alberta
* Rowley Island, Nunavut
United Kingdom
* Rowley, County Durham, a hamlet
* Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
* Rowley, Shropshire, a location in Shropshire, England
* Rowley Regis, ...
– United Grain Growers and Alberta Wheat Pool elevators saved from demolition by locals and now fully restored
* Scandia – Scandia Eastern Irrigation District Museum
The Scandia Eastern Irrigation District Museum is an open-air museum in Southern Alberta, Canada. The museum includes a historic 1925 Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator, Bow Slope Stockyard, and displays of how irrigation has affected the prosperit ...
, 1920s Alberta Wheat Pool and stockyard now a museum
* South Peace Centennial Museum
The South Peace Centennial Museum is an open-air museum in west-central Alberta, Canada. The museum's buildings include homesteaders' cabins, a trading post, church, school, grist mill, community hall, general store, blacksmith shop, barn, carr ...
, United Grain Growers moved from Albright Albright may refer to:
* Albright (surname)
* Albright, Alberta, Canada
* Albright, West Virginia, United States
* Albright College, a liberal arts college located in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States
* Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New ...
* Spruce Grove – Spruce Grove Grain Elevator Museum
The Spruce Grove Grain Elevator Museum is a former Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator that has been preserved as a working museum run by the volunteers of the Spruce Grove and District Agricultural Society. The elevator stands within the City of S ...
, former Alberta Wheat Pool, now a museum
* St. Albert – St. Albert Grain Elevator Park
St. Albert Grain Elevator Park is an open-air museum which features two historic grain elevators and a reconstructed railway station.
The two elevators are a 1906 Brackman-Ker Milling Company Elevator and a 1929 Alberta Wheat Pool Elevator, both ...
, a 1906 Alberta Grain Co. and 1929 Alberta Wheat Pool Elevators now restored as a historic park
* Stettler – a 1920 Parrish and Heimbecker grain elevator, feed mill, and coal shed, last to stand in Alberta, now protected and restored as a museum
* Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village – former Home Grain Co. moved from Bellis
''Bellis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.
The group is native to Europe, the Mediterranean and northern Africa. One species has been introduced into North America and others into other parts of the world. The genus ...
British Columbia
* Creston – former Alberta Wheat Pool
The Alberta Wheat Pool was the first of Canada's wheat farmer co-operatives in 1923.
History
Early years
In 1923, the United Farmers of Alberta met with then Attorney General John Edward Brownlee to consider setting up a Wheat Pool just in Alb ...
(1936) and United Grain Growers (1937) elevators that still stand tall on the edge of the downtown core in the middle of the Creston Valley
* Dawson Creek – restored and refurbished as a community art gallery
Manitoba
* Inglis – Inglis elevator row
The Inglis elevator row is a row of five wooden grain elevators located alongside the former Canadian Pacific Railway track bed, in the village of Inglis, Manitoba, Canada. Because so many traditional country elevators have been demolished thro ...
, last surviving elevator row in Manitoba with a total of four elevators. Now designated and protected as a National Historic Site of Canada
* Niverville – Western Canada's first grain elevator, erected by William Hespeler in 1879
* Plum Coulee – grain elevator refurbished as a restaurant and meeting rooms
Ontario
* Scugog
Scugog is a township in the Regional Municipality of Durham, south-central Ontario, Canada. It is northeast of Toronto and just north of Oshawa. The anchor and largest population base of the township is Port Perry. The township has a population ...
– Canada's oldest grain elevator and the second oldest in all of the Americas
* Stiver Mills – one of a few surviving grain elevators in Ontario, built 1916 and used until 1968 and now a farmers' market
Quebec
* Silo No. 5, Montreal – This grain elevator was completed in four stages from 1906 to 1959 and was abandoned in 1994. With the demolition of Silo No. 1 and Silo No. 2, Silo No. 5 is now, along with the Old Port’s conveyor pier tower, the last vestige of Old Montreal’s 20th-century harbour panorama.
Saskatchewan
* Edam – former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool now a museum
* Gravelbourg
Gravelbourg () is a small multicultural town in south-central Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located just west of the Wood River at the junction of provincial Highway 43 and Highway 58, approximately 125 kilometres from Moose Jaw, Swift Curre ...
– Former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool saved from demolition and now a museum
* Indian Head – experimental farm grain elevator refurbished as a Café, coffee house
* Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum
The Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum has many displays of life on the Prairies including many historic buildings that have been moved from surrounding communities, set up to mimic that of a small Farming Town from the early 1900s to 1930s. ...
– former Victoria – McCabe moved from Mawer Mawer has sometimes been described as a British occupational surname related to another British surname "Mower". However there is no reliable citation or clear origin for this. One argument against a speculated connection with the name "Mower" is t ...
* Val Marie – former Federal and 1967 Centennial Saskatchewan Wheat Pool now museums
* North Battleford Western Development Museum
The Western Development Museum is a network of four museums in Saskatchewan, Canada preserving and recording the social and economic development of the province. The museum has branches in Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Saskatoon and Yorkton. Respec ...
, former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool moved from Keatley
* Weyburn Inland Terminal
Weyburn is the eleventh-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. The city has a population of 10,870. It is on the Souris River southeast of the provincial capital of Regina and is north from the North Dakota border in the United States. The n ...
– first large farmer owned inland terminal in Canada, constructed in 1975 located near Weyburn
* Wood Mountain – former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool No. 706, demolished April 22, 2014
South Africa
* Port of Cape Town
The Port of Cape Town is the port of the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated in Table Bay.
Because of its position along one of the world's busiest trade routes it is one of the busiest ports in South Africa, handling the largest ...
– once the tallest building in Cape Town, now restored to become the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa
Switzerland
* Swissmill Tower
The Swissmill Tower, also known as Kornhaus, is the tallest operating grain elevator in the world. Standing at , it is the second tallest building in the Swiss city of Zürich.
History and description
The Swissmill Tower is a grain elevator c ...
in upper Limmat Valley in the Canton of Zürich – high, rebuilt by April 2016.
United Kingdom
The Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...
grain elevator was completed in 1898. It had a capacity of 40,000 tons and its automatic conveying and spouting system could distribute grain into 226 bins.
United States
Baltimore, Maryland
* Baltimore and Ohio Locust Point Grain Terminal Elevator
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...
, one of the largest grain terminal elevators to be constructed in the early 20th century, with a capacity of in Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
Buffalo, New York
* American Grain Complex
American Grain Complex, also known as "The American", Russell-Miller Milling Co. Elevator, and Peavey Co. Elevator, is a historic grain elevator and flour milling complex located in South Buffalo, Buffalo, Erie County, New York. The complex consis ...
, built between 1905 and 1931
* Cargill Pool Elevator
The Cargill Pool Elevator is a grain storage facility in Buffalo harbor built in the 1920s and previously named the Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator. The elevator is the only grain elevator in Buffalo that is located directly adjacent to Lake E ...
, previously named the Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator was built in 1925 offered a total holding capacity of in 135 bins
* Cargill Superior elevator, marked as Cargill "S", built between 1914 and 1925
* Concrete-Central Elevator
Concrete-Central Elevator is a historic grain elevator located on the Buffalo River at 175 Buffalo River (750 Ohio St.) Buffalo in Erie County, New York.
History
Concrete Central was built between 1915 and 1917 at the height of World War I. Due ...
, Buffalo, New York – The largest transfer elevator in the world at the time of its completion in 1917
* Connecting Terminal, Clearly visible from across canalside and the Commercial Slip
Canalside, formerly known as Canal Side and Erie Canal Harbor, is the recreation of the western terminus of the Erie Canal in Buffalo, New York. Canalside is situated on the Buffalo River, in an area that was historically home to the Seneca peop ...
the structure is now used for boat storage
* General Mills Plant, or "The Frontier Elevator" General Mills Buffalo factory is a large scale grain mill and cereal production facility, most notably producing Gold Medal brand flour, Wheaties, Cheerios, and other General Mills brand cereals
* Great Northern Elevator
The Great Northern Elevator is a grain storage facility at 250 Ganson Street in Buffalo, New York. The elevator is located on the City Ship Canal and at the time of its completion in 1897, the elevator was the world's largest. The elevator was t ...
, built in 1897 by the Great Northern Railroad; currently being demolished
* Lake & Rail Grain Elevator, part of the "elevator alley" – The Lake and Rail produces over 2,700,00 pounds of flour a day
* Marine A grain elevator, also part of the "elevator alley" and across from the Lake & Rail Grain Elevator
* The Standard Elevator
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
– named after the Standard Milling Company and built in 1926
* Wheeler Elevator – also known as the Agway/GLF East Work House, built in 1908
* Wollenberg Grain and Seed Elevator
Wollenberg Grain and Seed Elevator was a historic grain and seed elevator located at Buffalo in Erie County, New York. It was built in 1912 and remained in service until 1987. It was notable as the sole surviving example of a wooden or so-called ...
– wooden "country style" elevator formerly located in Buffalo, New York; destroyed by fire in October 2006
Wassaic, New York
* Maxon Mills – built in 1954 and remained in active use as a feed elevator until the 1980s. The mill was placed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and restored in the early 2000s. It is currently used as a contemporary art exhibition space by The Wassaic Project
The Wassaic Project is a non-profit artist-run arts, community and art education space in Wassaic, New York founded in 2008 that hosts festivals, community events and year-round artist residencies. Currently it consists of a year-round competitive ...
Illinois
* Armour's Warehouse
Armour's Warehouse, also known as the Seneca Grain Elevator or the Hogan's North Elevator, is a historic grain elevator located in the village of Seneca, Illinois, United States. The elevator and two surrounding outbuildings were listed on the U.S ...
– constructed in 1861–62 on the north bank of the Illinois-Michigan Canal
The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago Por ...
in Seneca, Illinois
Iowa
* Bouton, Iowa
Bouton is a city in Dallas County, Iowa, United States. The population was 127 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Des Moines–West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Geography
Bouton is located at (41.850694, -94.009420).
Accordi ...
's grain elevator – owned by Susan (''formerly'' Flanery) & Michael Chris Brelsford, photo shoot location for the 40th Anniversary Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (2004)
Minnesota
* Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company Elevator A, also known as the Ceresota Building and "The Million Bushel Elevator", was a receiving and public grain elevator built by the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company in 1908 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
* Peavey–Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator
The Peavey–Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator is the world's first known cylindrical concrete grain elevator. It was built from 1899 to 1900 in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, United States, as an experiment to prove the design was viable. ...
, St. Louis Park, Minnesota
St. Louis Park is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 50,010 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a first-ring suburb immediately west of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Min ...
, built in 1899–1900
* Saint Paul Municipal Grain Terminal
The Saint Paul Municipal Grain Terminal is a six-story grain elevator also known as the head house and sack house, and sits on piers over the Mississippi River in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was built between 1927 and 1931 as part ...
, in St. Paul, Minnesota, on the NRHP
North Dakota
* North Dakota Mill and Elevator, largest flour mill in the United States, located in Grand Forks, North Dakota
Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...
Oklahoma
* Bricktown, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is home to OKC Rocks, a former grain elevator that has been turned into an indoor rock-climbing facility located in Oklahoma City.
* Ingersoll Tile Elevator, elevator constructed of hollow red clay tiles, located in Ingersoll, Oklahoma
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
* Reading Company Grain Elevator
The Reading Company Grain Elevator was built as a grain elevator in 1925 by the Reading Railroad in Center City Philadelphia to replace an elevator that had operated on the same spot since the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a w ...
, export elevator in Philadelphia converted into offices
South Dakota
* Zip Feed Tower
The Zip Feed Tower was a grain elevator and feed mill in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At it was the tallest occupiable structure in South Dakota from its construction in 1956–57 until its demolition in December 2005. The mill closed in 2000 and i ...
, tallest occupiable structure in South Dakota from its construction in 1956–1957 until its demolition in December 2005
Virginia
* Groh's Grain Elevator, elevator located near the York River in Clay Bank, Virginia Clay Bank is an unincorporated community in Gloucester County, Virginia, Gloucester County, in the U. S. state of Virginia.
References
*
Unincorporated communities in Virginia
Unincorporated communities in Gloucester County, Virginia
{ ...
. The concrete elevator with 14 silos was built in 1950 at a cost of $150,000 (equal to over $1.6 million in 2021) by Louis Groh and Son, Inc. The waterfront property containing the long abandoned elevator is owned by a local physician who has installed a wind turbine atop the towering structure to generate electricity.
* Sewell's Point
Sewells Point is a peninsula of land in the independent city of Norfolk, Virginia in the United States, located at the mouth of the salt-water port of Hampton Roads. Sewells Point is bordered by water on three sides, with Willoughby Bay to th ...
grain elevator, export elevator built by the city of Norfolk in 1922 to help the port of Norfolk better compete with other East Coast ports by providing a publicly owned facility to store and load grain at reasonable rates. It was sold to the Norfolk and Western railroad in 1929, and leased from N&W by Continental grain
ContiGroup Companies, Inc (CGC) was founded by Simon Fribourg in Arlon, Belgium, in 1813 as a grain-trading firm. Formerly known as Continental Grain, ContiGroup has expanded into a multinational corporation with offices and facilities in 10 c ...
in 1952. The elevator originally held but was later expanded to . The elevator was taken over by Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
in the late 1980s and abandoned around the turn of the 21st century. The elevator was demolished by Norfolk Southern in 2008.
* Southern States Southern States may refer to:
*The independent states of the Southern hemisphere
United States
* Southern United States, or the American South
* Southern States Cooperative, an American farmer-owned agricultural supply cooperative
* Southern Stat ...
silos, a grain elevator in Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
, image_map =
, mapsize = 250 px
, map_caption = Location within Virginia
, pushpin_map = Virginia#USA
, pushpin_label = Richmond
, pushpin_m ...
originally built in the 1940s by Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
, and currently leased by Perdue Farms is the tallest structure south of the James River
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...
in the city of Richmond. The elevator was the site of the 3rd RVA Street Art Festival.
Wisconsin
* Chase Grain Elevator
The Chase Grain Elevator is a grain elevator located in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. It was built in 1922 and added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal gover ...
, tile grain elevator built in 1922. Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
Sun Prairie is a city in Dane County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. A suburb of Madison, it is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 35,967 at the 2020 U.S. Census. It is the second-most populous city in Da ...
Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. It is the last remaining tile elevator in Wisconsin.
Wyoming
* Sheridan Flouring Mills, Inc.
The Sheridan Flouring Mills, also known as the Mill Inn, are an industrial complex in Sheridan, Wyoming. The mills were a major component of the economy of north central Wyoming, providing collection, storage and milling of locally produced wheat ...
, an industrial complex in Sheridan, Wyoming
Elevator explosions
Given a large enough suspension of combustible flour
Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...
or grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
dust in the air, a significant explosion
An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...
can occur. A historical example of the destructive power of grain explosions is the 1878 explosion of the Washburn "A" Mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, which killed 18, leveled two nearby mills, damaged many others, and caused a destructive fire that gutted much of the nearby milling district. (The Washburn "A" mill was later rebuilt and continued to be used until 1965.) Another example occurred in 1998, when the DeBruce grain elevator in Wichita, Kansas, exploded and killed seven people. A recent example is an explosion on October 29, 2011 at the Bartlett Grain Company in Atchison, Kansas. The death toll was six people. Two more men received severe burns, but the remaining four were not hurt.
Almost any finely divided organic
Organic may refer to:
* Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity
* Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ
Chemistry
* Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...
substance becomes an explosive material
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...
when dispersed as an air suspension; hence, a very fine flour is dangerously explosive in air suspension. This poses a significant risk when milling grain to produce flour, so mills go to great lengths to remove sources of sparks. These measures include carefully sifting the grain before it is milled or ground to remove stones, which could strike sparks from the millstones, and the use of magnets to remove metallic debris able to strike sparks.
The earliest recorded flour explosion took place in an Italian mill in 1785, but many have occurred since. These two references give numbers of recorded flour and dust explosions in the United States in 1994: and 1997 In the ten-year period up to and including 1997, there were 129 explosions.
Media
Canadian Prairie grain elevators were the subjects of the National Film Board of Canada documentaries ''Grain Elevator'' and ''Death of a Skyline''.
During the sixth season of the History Channel series '' Ax Men'', one of the featured crews takes on the job of dismantling the Globe Elevator in Wisconsin. This structure was the largest grain-storage facility in the world when it was built in the 1880s.
See also
* Silo
A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...
* Grain entrapment
* Granary
* Dust explosion
* List of grain elevators
List of notable grain elevators:
Canada
''Alberta''
* Acadia Valley - Prairie Elevator Museum, former Alberta Wheat Pool converted into a tea house / museum.
* Alberta Central Railroad Museum - former Alberta Wheat Pool, second oldest standing g ...
References
External links
Grain elevators in West Texas
Complete Photographic Record of the Remaining Canadian Prairie Grain Elevators
Vanishing Landmarks: Photographs of standing and demolished Grain Elevators with information and maps.
Grain Elevators: Buffalo's Lost Industry
Buffalo Grain Elevators
A bibliography by The Buffalo History Museum
Bruce Selyem, Grain Elevator Photographer
Pixelgrain: Mapping Transition in the Canadian Prairies
"Inside a Modern Grain Elevator"
''Popular Science Monthly'', February 1930, p. 45. Drawing of how 1930s grain elevator worked at sea ports.
Our Grandfathers' Grain Elevators blog with specifications of reinforced-concrete elevators
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grain Elevator
Grain production