“Pic of the Week”, November 27, 2020: Grain Elevators, Thunder Bay

05 Grain terminals (1)

There are eight massive grain elevators in the Port of Thunder Bay, situated on the western shore of Lake Superior.  Trains bring much of the bounty from the Canadian prairies to Thunder Bay — wheat, durum, canola, feed grains, peas and other crops, as well as grain by-products (smaller amounts are also shipped to Churchill and Vancouver).  These foods are temporarily stored in these enormous structures before being loaded onto ships that then make their way through the St. Lawrence Seaway, bound to countless ports around the world.
The Port of Thunder Bay has the largest grain storage capacity in North America, currently handling about 6 million tons of grain each year (though capable of more).  Ship loading rates range from …

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Karl on Nov 26, 2020 | Comments Off on “Pic of the Week”, November 27, 2020: Grain Elevators, Thunder Bay

“Pic of the Week”, August 24, 2018: A Disappearing Prairie Icon

elevator 1

Grain elevators, prairie sentinels, prairie cathedrals — all synonyms for the large structures that have dotted the Canadian prairies for more than a century.  I recall when traveling across the plains as a boy, you could spot these wooden towers at great distances — often 20 or more miles away — providing welcome relief to the otherwise flat landscape.  Each elevator was a storage facility that marked the location of a prairie town; the larger and more plentiful elevators were in a given location, the larger and more prosperous the town.

The business of the prairies is agriculture and mechanisms needed to be developed to get the bountiful grain crops to world markets.  After some experimentation with bagging the grain, it …

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Karl on Aug 23, 2018 | Comments Off on “Pic of the Week”, August 24, 2018: A Disappearing Prairie Icon