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63-560: At the start of the 20th century the North-West Elevator Association, closely associated with the Winnipeg Grain Exchange, controlled over two thirds of the grain elevators on the prairies. The elevator companies, working together, could force the farmers to accept low prices for their grain. When there were shortages of rail cars the railways gave preferential treatment to the companies over

126-592: A National Historic Sites of Canada . The Warner elevator row is, as of 2019, not designated a historic site, and is still in use as commercial grain elevators. All companies operating elevators in Canada are licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission . This is a list of grain elevators that are either in the process of becoming heritage sites or museums , or have been preserved for future generations. The Manchester Ship Canal grain elevator

189-412: A pneumatic conveyor , which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits it in a silo 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,

252-520: 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 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

315-473: A common sight in the grain-growing areas of the world, such as the North American 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

378-654: 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. An explosion on October 29, 2011, at the Bartlett Grain Company in Atchison, Kansas , killed six people. Two more men received severe burns, but

441-441: 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

504-564: 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

567-703: Is a town in Saskatchewan , Canada. The population of Sintaluta is 124 people according to the 2021 Census of Population . The town is about 85 km east of Regina . The town is on the north side of the Trans-Canada Highway . The name Sintaluta comes from a Lakota language word meaning tail of the red fox . It is the administrative headquarters of the Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation band government. The first section foreman for

630-527: Is emptied from bins, tanks, and silos, it is conveyed, blended, and weighted into trucks, railroad cars , or barges for shipment. In Australian English , 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,

693-480: Is given and in defaul the Commissioner shall have power to impose penalties on such defaulting railway, and collect same through the courts, and that this amendment come into force on May 1, 1902. That railway companies be compelled to provide farmers with cars to be loaded direct from vehicles, at all stations, irrespective of there being an elevator, warehouse or loading platform at such station of not. That

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756-559: 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. Canadian Prairie grain elevators were

819-402: 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

882-627: 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

945-543: The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) came to Sintaluta in 1886. The first railway station opened here in 1898. When Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, the people of the settlement soon set into action the application that this place should be incorporated into a town. This happened in 1907. Before the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) made its way across the west, the pioneers would stop at Sintaluta to refresh their supplies before heading west. In 1881,

1008-751: 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

1071-556: 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

1134-648: The Abernathy district arranged a follow-up to the Indian Head meeting. The farmers agree to form a Territorial Grain Growers' Association (TGGA), and nominated Motherwell as provisional president and John Millar as provisional secretary. A meeting was held on 6 January 1902 to draw up a constitution for the association. Motherwell and Matthew Snow of Wolseley began touring the region and encouraging farmers to form local TGGA associations. The first annual convention of

1197-546: The American Society of Equity, another Alberta group, to form the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA). Motherwell would eventually become provincial minister of agriculture and then federal minister of agriculture. Grain elevator A grain elevator is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade , the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or

1260-529: The Grain Act be amended making it the duty of the railway agent, when there is a shortage of cars, to apportion the available cars in the order in which they are applied for, and that in case such cars are misappropriated by applicants not entitled to them, the penalties of the act be enforced against such parties. The recommendations were debated in the House of Commons on 17 March 1902 and passed as amendments to

1323-543: The Manitoba Grain Act with little modification on 19 May 1902. The act was also amended to require the CPR to cover the cost of land and sidings when anyone within forty miles of a siding applied to build a flat warehouse, and to build a loading platform when ten farmers formally applied for one. However, the act did not ensure enforcement, and during the bumper harvest of 1902 there was again a shortage of cars, and CPR

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1386-731: The Partidge's leadership. This was the start of a new struggle with the elevator companies. In 1905 Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces. The Alberta branch of the TGGA became the Alberta Farmers' Association under the leadership of Rice Sheppard of the Strathcona area. In 1906 the TGGA renamed itself the Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association (SGGA). In 1909 the Alberta Farmers' Association combined with

1449-538: The TGGA and later became vice-president. The delegates at the February meeting approved three recommendations proposed by Motherwell for changes to the Grain Act. These were: That section 42 of the Manitoba Grain Act be amended to empower the Warehouse Commissioner to compel all railway companies to erect every loading platform approved by the said Commissioner within thirty days after said approval

1512-409: The TGGA was held on 1 February 1902, attended by delegates from 38 local groups. By this time the TGGA membership was 500. To ensure that it could speak for all farmers, the TGGA was careful to avoid association with any political party. The provisional officers were confirmed at the February meeting. Charles Avery Dunning (1885–1958), later to become Premier of Saskatchewan, was appointed a director of

1575-482: The United States had 0.88 cubic kilometres (25 billion US bushels) of storage capacity, a growth of 25% over the previous decade. 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

1638-423: 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

1701-400: 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

1764-567: The Warehouse Commissioner. On 28 November the Commissioner looked into the case and started court proceedings. The defendant was found guilty given a fine of CDN$ 50 plus costs, or one month in jail. CPR appealed the decision but lost in the Supreme Court of the North-West Territories. Immediately after the decision farmers found that CPR was making cars much more readily available. An account written in 1918 said, At once

1827-479: The act the TGGA had achieved its primary objective, and lost some of its momentum. Edward Alexander Partridge of Sintaluta, began to push the TGGA members to demand tighter control of the grading system and inspection of elevators. The Sintaluta Local was concerned about the operation of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange . They persuaded the federal government to appoint a "watchdog" to make sure that

1890-766: 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 , 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 and Cleveland , or east to

1953-566: The early 20th century, Buffalo's grain elevators inspired modernist architects such as Le Corbusier , 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

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2016-408: The elevators and lack of railway cars. In November 1901 two farmers in the major grain shipping center of Indian Head , John Sibbold and John A. Millar, organized an "indignation meeting" that was attended by about fifty farmers. The group united in "opposition to the corporations which they stigmatized as their oppressors". In December 1901 William Richard Motherwell (1860–1943) and Peter Dayman of

2079-579: The exchange was treating grain growers fairly, and they sent Partridge to Winnipeg in January–February 1905 to observe the exchange. He was treated poorly and became convinced that the exchange was not interested in the farmers, who needed their own grain company. On 27 January 1906 the Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) was founded as a cooperative company to handle marketing of the grain, under

2142-512: The farmers. The 1908 "Partridge Plan" listed other "ill practices" that included "the taking of heavy dockage, the giving of light weight, misgrading the farmers' grain sold on the street or graded into store, failure to provide cleaning apparatus, changing the identity of the farmers' special binned grain, declining to allot space for special binning and refusing to ship grain to owner's order, even when storage charges are tended. The Manitoba Grain Act

2205-654: The first stopping house was established at what would become Sintaluta. Sintaluta's first school classroom was opened up shortly after 1882. Church services were held in the stopping house and schools until 1887, when the Presbyterians built a wooden structure, followed by a brick one built by the Methodists in 1899. St. John the Baptist Anglican Church also built a stone church and manse that still stands today and has been carefully preserved by

2268-797: The grain elevator at Ellerslie, Alberta , 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 of 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 3,452,240 tonnes (3,805,440 short tons) of grain. By 2010, only 79 "primary elevators" (as they are now known) remained, holding 1,613,960 tonnes (1,779,090 short tons). Despite this consolidation, overall storage capacity has increased in many places. In 2017,

2331-528: The grain terminals. Farmers would bring their grain to the elevator and trains would leave without taking it. Some influential men of the time decided that they would take the Canadian Pacific Railway to court over this matter. One of these men was Edward Alexander Partridge . The farmers won the case. They had made their stand at a key time, for the CPR described Sintaluta as being the largest grain shipping point at that time, in Western Canada . This

2394-897: The grain was either distributed to East Coast 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

2457-505: The harbor. The alley runs under Ohio Street and along Childs Street in the city's First Ward neighborhood. 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

2520-558: 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 in 1906. This led to several grain elevators being burned down in Nebraska, allegedly in protest. Today, grain elevators are

2583-413: The local history club. In 1943, St Helene's Roman Catholic church was built. This church is still present today. In 1959, the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses built Kingdom Hall. The United Church of Canada built a modern church and education centre in the early 1960s. This is now home to the senior citizens association. The town outgrew its school classroom and the first school house was a necessity and

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2646-609: 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. In 1899 Frank H. Peavey "The Elevator King' along with Charles F. Haglin , invented the modern grain elevator. The first Peavey-Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator still stands today in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The Peavey invented elevator

2709-605: 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

2772-417: 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;

2835-419: The newspapers all over the country were full of it. Oracles of bar-room and barber-shop nodded their heads wisely; hadn't they said that even the CPR couldn't win against organized farmers, backed up by the law of the land? Away East the news was magnified till it became: "The farmers out West have licked the CPR in court and are threatening to tear up the tracks!" The Manitoba Grain Growers' Association (MGGA)

2898-579: 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

2961-406: The remaining four were not hurt. Almost any finely divided organic substance becomes an explosive material 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

3024-439: 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

3087-763: 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. Sintaluta Sintaluta ( / ˌ s ɪ n t ə ˈ lj uː t ə / )

3150-592: 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. Both necessity and the prospect of making money gave birth to the steam-powered grain elevator in Buffalo, New York , in 1843. Due to

3213-417: 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). The Dart elevator was a major innovation—it was invented by Joseph Dart , a merchant, and Robert Dunbar , an engineer, in 1842, in Buffalo, New York . Using the steam-powered flour mills of Oliver Evans as their model, they invented

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3276-615: The top grain-producing areas in all of Canada. There are two remaining elevators in town today, and are in the hands of private owners, two of fewer than 350 elevators that remain across the prairies today. Robert (Bob) Baker worked for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool as a grain buyer from 1935 until 1952 when he was superannuated from the Sask. Wheat Pool elevator and became Town Clerk as well as selling farm insurance. The Sintaluta Co-op service station opened in 1947. Vic Sexsmith

3339-426: 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 (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

3402-577: 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

3465-480: Was a resident in town, whose name was John Miller. He was 91 years old at the time. He received a call from Paris, Ontario, that was sent by the mayor of the city. It was congratulating him on being the oldest person from Western Canada who heard the first message sent over the Bell Telephone when he was 21 years old. Sintaluta once was home to seven elevator companies, and has the distinction as being one of

3528-510: Was built in 1895. In 1899, a large stone school was built. It burned down in 1905. A two-story brick school was built in 1907. The bricks were purchased locally from a factory in Lebret . In 1901, there was a bumper crop of wheat in the Sintaluta district. It was a good year all around for farmers as far as wheat was concerned, but their problem was getting the wheat on trains for delivery to

3591-412: Was clearly favoring the elevator companies in allocation of the available cars. Motherwell and Peter Dayman went to Winnipeg to complain to CPR, where they were told that the railway was having difficulty adapting to the rapid growth in wheat production. There was no visible improvement in the situation, and after a few months the TGGA presented a formal complaint against the CPR's Sintaluta agent before

3654-523: 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. Given a large enough suspension of combustible flour or grain dust in the air, a significant explosion can occur. The 1878 explosion of the Washburn "A" Mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota , killed 18, leveled two nearby mills, damaged many others, and caused

3717-514: Was formed at a meeting on March 3–4, 1903 in Brandon, Manitoba . In 1903 two officers of the MGGA accompanied Motherwell and J.B. Gillespie of the TGGA to Ottawa where they met with representatives of the railways and grain companies to tighten up the wording of the Manitoba Grain Act. The new text was introduced as an amendment to the act which was passed that year. With the passage of the amendments to

3780-561: Was later made into a movie by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and called The Long Haul . Sintaluta was home to the founder of the current-day United Grain Growers Association ( Agricore United ) with prominent local residents residing on the first board of directors. The Grain Growers Guide (now The Country Guide ) first editor was also from Sintaluta. In 1945, Bell Telephone celebrated its 70th anniversary. There

3843-431: Was passed in 1901, designed to prevent these abuses and ensure fair practices and prices in the booming grain trade in the prairie provinces of Canada. There was a bumper crop that year, and farmers found they could not get their produce to market because the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the grain companies were still failing to conform to the act. Almost half the crop was lost due to spoilage due to lack of space in

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3906-617: Was the Manager from 1947 to 1965. Albert Sexsmith worked there from 1947 to 1954. It is the only service station still in operation in Sintaluta in 2017. Vic Sexsmith became Town Clerk in 1965 taking over from Robert Baker who was Town Clerk from 1952 to 1965. Vic also took over the insurance business. Vic Sexsmith was a Town Councillor for several terms. He became the Mayor of Sintaluta in 1961. He remained as Town Clerk from 1965 until 1970 when he became ill and his wife Marion Sexsmith took over and

3969-544: Was the first cylindrical concrete grain elevator in the world and is now widely used across Canada and the US. 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 augers , and conveyors. As grain

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