The work for this gallery was carried out in the period from1985 to 1988.
It was motivated by the fact that the original country elevators were being
demolished at the rate of 50 or more per year in Alberta alone. These ubiquitious
sentinels were the dominant prairie structures for the most part of the
twentieth century and were now rapidly disappearing. Located approximately
ten miles apart on the rail lines they provided a temporary storage point
for farmers' grain prior to pick up by the major railroads and subsequent
delivery to large grain terminals at Canadian ports.
The relatively close spacing of the country elevators was required in the
early part of the century because it was a practical distance that farmers
could haul grain from their farms using horses and grain wagons over primitive
roads. As roads and trucks improved in the latter part of the century it
became more practical to construct larger and more widely spaced country
elevators.
The diverse group people in this gallery lived in the rural communities
or on farms and ranches in the Canadian prairies. For the most part I just
met them along the way of my travels. Where and how they lived was affected
by the changes in the country elevator system that saw some communities
grow and many to disappear.