How a Grain Elevator Works and Why I Think They Are Amazing Structures (Episode 181)

During our last exploration road trip, I found myself talking about the inner workings of grain elevators while we were visiting the abandoned elevator at Butze, Alberta. Rather than incorporating it into that video, I decided to make it into a standalone "bonus" video.
This isn't a super detailed description of grain elevators but it provides an overview of their functions, operation, and cultural significance to prairie inhabitants.
This was unplanned and unscripted so forgive me if I get some facts wrong or stumble around some of the words.
As always, thanks for coming along for the ride!
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#alberta #grainelevator #butze
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[@danielfantino1714]

Thanks for your work. I´m not in the Prairies, but followed many hamlets and town via Google Earth. When railroads arrived in town it was big bonanza. Most of these little places lived a short economical boom. Railroads deliverying goods and picking up grain at the elevator. As you mentioned and said in some comments when trucks replaced horse wagons, and as trucks grew bigger, the closeness of these silos went useless. Many railroad tracks were just branchs going from towns to towns. As old smaller silos were shut down, tracks serving silos were removed. When finally almost no customers were still using the train, well entire railroad branches saw track removal. Usually that signed a bad sign for those smallest hamlets. Population went down, less business and retailers and some places disapeared completely with few remaining abandoned buildings and houses. So sad to see these little hearthy places gone in the wind. Once booming with church full of newborned, mariages and funeral. All gone. Dead cemetery.... We understand that not so sexy steel round silos won´t rot or burn, and why there so huge to accomodate 100 cars trains.

[@DanOCan]

So well said! An excellent summary. Thank you for watching.

[@twochickens3954]

Those old wooden grain elevators are so much more eye pleasing than the tin cans they have now. 🌾🚜🍞

[@DanOCan]

So true!

[@patpringle5218]

Hey Dan, Pat here from Toronto. Very interesting, I think you explained the workings very well for a guy on the fly. I knew they were grain elevators, but really had no idea how they worked. It is a shame to see the iconic structures disappearing. Thanx and keep the videos comin'. the way I see it -- Pat

[@DanOCan]

Thank you!

[@mfhryniuk]

Great explanation on how it works. The only thing I would say is that the grain truck size had zero to do with the elevator size. When the “crow rate” was taken away from farmers, it gave the handful of grain buying conglomerates the ability to shut down the 3000 western Canadian elevators and force farmers to haul to a large “inland terminal” where the rail companies could “subsidize” the extra hauling now put onto the farmer. So the large companies that buy, sell and move grain have “externalized” all of the costs onto the taxpayer and farmer by forcing the costs of road maintenance, and by hauling by large trucks to further points along the road where it is “convenient” for them to set up 112 rail cars for a one stop deal for the buyers and grain buying companies. The taxpayer now instead of “subsidizing” rail shipping costs by a little, have now put hundreds of millions onto the taxpayers fully, just by a bait and switch fog and mirror show. Farmers are now growing 3X more grain on the same land with fewer than 300 grain buying inland terminals. Next, corporate farms with private equity capitalism, followed by grain “shortages” and the land owned by these same corporate farms. CORPORATIONS NEVER DIE, they are sold to the next higher bidder. Game over.

[@DanOCan]

Excellent comment and description of how the industry has changed. I had never before considered the increasing size of grain trucks was a direct result of the grain companys’ actions rather than being a cause of it.

[@jarrodburreson3034]

That’s “a lot” of “ “ “ used in your comment lol. Just yankin your chain fellow KZbin commenter, nothin but love for ya!

[@user-yy5xj3yx3i]

Great and detailed explanation! You have no idea how this video will save an architecture student’s case-study assignment.😅

[@DanOCan]

Happy to hear it. I am pleasantly surprised at how well this video is performing; had I known it was going to be so popular, I would have put more effort into it. :)

[@andrewcutts3197]

Very useful for anyone modelling one of these wooden elevators. Thanks for putting this up.

[@DanOCan]

My videos of the Dorothy grain elevator would be handy for that too because you can see right in the top thanks to the wind storm which ripped the roof off of it.

[@robnielsen935]

Hi Dan, Thank you for sharing this about a "pairie skyscraper". I grew up in Lethbridge but moved to Utah when I was 12. The States just don't have elevators like this very often and I miss seeing them. I am facinated by old buildings like this and am glad there are those like yourself who explore them and share their observations with us.

[@DanOCan]

Thank you so much!

[@nurulchowdhury7300]

Not only you explained how a grain elevator works, but you also explained the cultural significance of a grain elevator. It is a humbling experience!

[@DanOCan]

It is hard to overstate the cultural significance. These were the lifeblood of the community. Often the grain elevator and pist office were the first pieces of infrastructure put in place and the elevator is often the last remnant of the community.

[@craiglowrey9550]

You did a great job explaining the purposes of the grain elevators. Not being a prairie guy, you were a great help to me. Thanks.

[@DanOCan]

I sometimes forget that there are many people out there who are not rural or from the prairies and likely don't understand what these are for and why they are such an important part of our history. Glad you got something from it. One day I should do a more scripted version of this topic.

[@rexelagapay7579]

Thanks for this. Was long time wondering.

[@DanOCan]

Glad to help!

[@jarrodburreson3034]

I really enjoyed your video. I just googled “how does a grain elevator work” and your video popped up, but now that I’ve seen this video I’m definitely gonna check out more of your media. Keep up the good work buddy!

[@DanOCan]

Thank you. I appreciate it a lot.

[@ruzicatowers8693]

i love old anything, homes, grain elevators, seniors, even recipes, this is a good vid !

[@TT.4_]

It is sad to see history like this come to an end! I am doing a 1/87 HO grain bin plant on my layout. Thank you for posting this! I will look at this all the time!

[@DanOCan]

Right on.

[@kennerdskinnerd4794]

Excellent video, thank you. I left the Canadian prairies very young and always wanted to know what one of these looked like inside. Also thanks for using the furry microphone in the wind. I wish more people did that :)

[@grahamhooper3143]

Nice video, really informative and enjoyable watch

[@DanOCan]

Thanks! One day I'll have to do a scripted version so my thoughts are in a better order.

[@leeahopkins]

Very informative. Thanks!

[@DanOCan]

Thank you!

[@user-we9oo2ti9k]

This is an excellent video, Dan! I'm a graduate student researching nineteenth-century Great Lakes port towns, and this has been extremely helpful in understanding both the economic and cultural significance of grain elevators, along with how they actually worked. Thanks so much!

[@DanOCan]

Thank you!

[@giggles8458]

Nice tour, thank you very much.

[@sherlynn7211]

Fantastic! So well done ! Best explanation I have ever heard on how these glorious icons worked. Love your fancy techy words (thingie.. ) :) cheers from Calgary ! Thanks so much :)

[@davidkimmel4216]

Great explanation. Right on

[@DanOCan]

Thank you.

[@user-pe4xf6hd5q]

Excellent. Thank you

[@jayboehm3382]

I loved this video, Dan. I understood the importance of the elevators for agriculture, but I hadn't considered the wider roles they played in prairie communities. Thanks for the enjoyable presentation!

[@DanOCan]

Thanks, Jay. Yeah, they were really vital pieces of infrastructure. Thanks for watching; I hope all is well with you.

[@jayboehm3382]

@@DanOCan We're thriving! You've inspired me to seek out some nearby grain elevators to paint en plein air in watercolour! I love the ones in Nanton. Are the others within an hour or so of Calgary that might be less well known?

[@DanOCan]

@@jayboehm3382 Check out Mossleigh and Herronton. I want to go back to both places and fly the drone over them again.

[@TheBoondoggler]

Fascinating. Great vid.

[@DanOCan]

Thanks. One day we’ll find a different elevator and do a new version where I’ll have my thoughts more organized.

[@michaelamans2780]

Very interesting, thanks for posting. 👍

[@DanOCan]

Thank you.

[@sitn9996]

Well done sir.

[@joeboudreault2226]

This is quite good. Thank you so much.

[@DanOCan]

Thank you!

[@oilersridersbluejays]

I was born in the 80s and got to witness both the heyday of branch lines and older elevators and the ugly modern concrete on or close to main lines. I’m in western Saskatchewan not terribly far from this elevator in the video. My town had three grain elevators and each were quite different from each other. The Pioneer (the one my dad sold most of his grain to) had a metal house and large wooden annex. It had two loading tracks and could do 25 cars at a time. It also had a digital scale that could unload a super b truck. It had two legs and everything was electric. The second was a large wooden Sask Wheat Pool with a digital scale as well and two legs and also could do 25 cars at a time. These two were quite large elevators. The third was originally a Federal that became just secondary storage for the Sask Wheat Pool. It was originally equipped with a diesel engine and operated like the elevator in the video. The only upgrades it received was it was converted to electrically ran and a hopper car spout. Everything else in it was still original. The elevators were all closed by 2005 and the rail line was abandoned a few years later. I really appreciate the touch on the culture of these buildings. Even as a kid in the 80s and 90s, these were places where men sold grain from their hard work and often not making much money doing it. It was quite common to go there for coffee in the morning or a beer in the afternoon and visit. They were very important places to the fabric of prairie towns.

[@DanOCan]

Thanks so much for the information and sharing your experience. I worked for the Alberta Wheat Pool in the summer of 1994. I wish I had an appreciation for the elevators then like I do now as both the grain elevator and the 1920s fertilizer plant (which operated just like the elevators) are now both now long gone and I didn't even bother to take a picture of them while I was working there.

[@danielfantino1714]

@@DanOCan every single day will be magical history tomorrow. When did Canada Post replaced the round too mailbox by the actual square type ? In wich year city lampost replaced the white lights by the orange one, then turn to led ? Things changes daily, slowly and disapeared. Remember days when milkman delivered your Milk in glass bottle on your porch, or ice cream man in its very slow driving truck with its driling driling bell to call kids. Yep it was "daily" routine long gone now. Cheers.

[@eugenetswong]

Hello, from Surrey, BC! Thank you for educating me on this. It is important for me to be a part of Canada's past, or at least be aware of it.

[@cbraun785]

Thank You. I had no idea.

[@DanOCan]

Hope you enjoyed it while learning something new.

[@willb5272]

Rudimentary as it may be, I still thoroughly enjoyed the video. Having been born and raised in Vulcan, these historical pieces of the past are held near and dear to my heart. Sad they’re being torn down and or vandalized.

[@JMEDBRICKCLIX]

good video and info.

[@mistervacation23]

When that grain elevator was built most likely wagons would dump their grain there.

[@DanOCan]

Absolutely.

[@JohnNyren65]

Fantastic video! Very interesting!

[@DanOCan]

Thank you.

[@ChristopherOrth]

Fun video! I great up on a cattle ranch in Colorado, in that transition time when things like this were both still in use, and clearly on their way out. Strange to see things today that seem so old and abandoned, yet are familiar from my youth.

[@DanOCan]

Yes, I feel the same way. Growing up every town had multiple grain elevators and I never would have believed they would disappear to the extent they have.

[@mosriteflyinfingers9252]

Thanks for the education! I’m from the east coast of the US where these are virtually unheard of. My hobby is tractors, and this helps me understand the ancillary parts of farming. This makes me want to visit Montana or Saskatchewan at some point too.

[@DanOCan]

Saskatchewan is magical in the summer if you are in to agriculture.

[@daviddedick14]

Thanks! Until I watched your video I had no idea how these large icons of the prairies functioned.

[@DanOCan]

Right on. Glad to offer some insight into their operations. Someday I'll make a better follow-up to this one.

[@TMike12100]

The "auger thing" is called a distributor. It's used to bin grain just like you said 👍

[@DanOCan]

Yeah, I think I got caught trying to come up with the name "Gerber" which I think is a company that made many of the distributors.

[@Key-yw6jq]

I work at an elevator currently and we call ours a diverter (I have no clue if we even use the right term lol) - it has only four chutes off it and quite frankly I think the mechanically operated one in this video is more reliable - it's electronic and a pain in the butt but thankfully we don't have to use it for the commodities we deal with. Awesome work on the video btw! So cool to see how an older one worked compared to one that was built less than a decade ago!

[@IbanezBlakeb]

Or a turn head

[@jeremymoreside1444]

The grain gets dumped in the drive thru, into the pit, the leg carries the grain up to the top of the leg into the Gerber, the Gerber is the diverter. It send grain into desired storage bins inside the annex. The building beside the main elevator.

[@oilersridersbluejays]

Gerber is what the spout wwas that went from the leg to whichever bin you were on. Newer elevators have two legs that shoot into a distributor. A distributor is basically a big metal can with a bunch of holes around the edge that goes to whichever bin. It’s practically the same idea except the wheel has been replaced by electro magnetic censors.

[@RoyMarkosGarageRMG]

I like how you did this one. I prefer these old wooden grain elevators to the new ones. I’ll be watching more. Nice to meet you on the GBC as well.

[@DanOCan]

The new ones lack something. I think it's the cultural significance they held to the community. That pivotal role they played simply doesn't exist in today's world.

[@G10Jon]

Great video thank you. I’m from New England - there are a few elevators here but I’ve never understood the whole operation.

[@DanOCan]

Thank you!

[@schadowolf]

Great video, will help as I model mine for my model railroad circa 1950.

[@DanOCan]

Sounds great. Model railroading is one of those things my dad and I did when I was a kid and I’d love to do it again as an adult but I lack the space for a layout. And, as I often say, the last thing I need is another expensive hobby. ;)

[@derkbuiter6828]

Tanks for vid One quastion more when they start building these elevator and when out of order Greetings from holland

[@DanOCan]

Hello! My father emigrated from the Netherlands back in 1952. Nice to hear from a Dutch viewer. This particular style of elevator was built starting in the early 1900s, with the 1920s being the height of building. They were built right up until the 1980s when they started being replaced by larger concrete terminals.

[@derkbuiter6828]

@@DanOCan so you dutchcanadian thats funny! The elevator looks quite simular of the elevator here in Groningen kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYitdGmaqLx5pKsfeature=shared. start building 1960 end some are still in use

[@RyokoVT]

This was very interesting! There's a well-preserved grain elevator in Spruce Grove Alberta, apparently the last remaining wooden one west of Edmonton, and I had always wondered how it worked. We think we're so technologically advanced now but I never would've considered any of that.

[@DanOCan]

We need to get up to that Spruce Grove elevator. I believe Dawson Creek, BC also still has at least one.

[@jasonsailer396]

A great video Dan, it would have made Jim Pearson proud!

[@DanOCan]

Not sure why I didn't see this comment sooner, but thank you. Jim is always in my mind whenever I do anything related to grain elevators.

[@edbreuer7405]

At one time there were elevators in every town. You forgot to say that they ground all the feed the livestock pigs and for whatever farmers raised. Farmers could get there salt minerals twine everything that was needed. That is also the distance a stream engine could go before it had to refill with water. Do one of an elevator used for grinding feed. Nice video thanks for sharing it.

[@DanOCan]

Thank you for watching. I appreciate the comment and for expanding on some things I didn't include.

[@999pr1]

These on the prairie were mostly for storage and often did not have feed making equipment. In the US midwest every elevator was as much a feed mill as it was a storage facility. Most were powered by electricity and had some of the earliest 3 phase lines and equipment to be found in rural areas. I have seen a few with engine power but those had a diesel engine running a generator to allow electric motors in various areas of the facility. One thing I did not see in this old facility was the wagon hoist, maybe it had already been removed. I spent hours at our local elevators and saw them change over the years to handle single axle trucks, then larger ones. This usually meant adding an outside dump and larger scales. Now almost all grain goes to large facilities that can load out 100 railcars at a time.

[@edbreuer7405]

@@999pr1 Yes you are right some did run on diesel engines . The one in St Patrick MN did the old one in Lonsdale MN did but I don't know if was steam or gas .l have watched wagon hoists dump pickups unloading corn and oats mixted together grinding feed. I think the mill in Lonsdale still uses it .Thank you for sharing.

[@skyt54]

Very Interesting. I have a Ruston Hornsby engine that was used to run these elevators. It has been restored and runs very good. I kind of wish history would have stopped at that point.

[@DanOCan]

They make such a satisfying sound when running.

[@Lumberjak88]

The "auger thingy" at the top that puts the grain in whatever bin is called the distributor.

[@DanOCan]

Thank you, yes, that is the term I was trying to come up with. Ah, the joys of doing unscripted videos. :)

[@darkadmiral106]

I am from Germany, and for the most part we do Farm Grain and Corn here in the North. Northern Germany is basically Nebraska.

[@DanOCan]

We will be making a return visit to Germany in December this year.

[@wheatdoctor]

It is called a distributor.

[@bradenconway9066]

Nowadays we haul 20-40-150 miles to haul our grain. Some giys have to haul over 200 miles now. We need elevators in small towns back. We need to have terminals in smaller towns because the price of fuel is insane, equipment prices are insane. Im lucky enough to only have to haul 20 miles but even thats crazy. We need trains back and we need terminals back

[@DanOCan]

It would be great to see a return to more localized operations.

[@HeyKyleRedhere]

The chance is it's an 2fort map from tf2

[@dgdaner]

We've always called the tube up top the distributor. This style is known as a "horsec##k" distributor due to it's resemblance to horse equipment.

[@DanOCan]

That was a good laugh. That's a one for me!

[@willb5272]

The “auger thingy,” you reference, I believe was called a Gerber.

[@DanOCan]

Indeed! I know they have a great working example at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon which I have played with but the name escaped me at the time. Imagine what I could accomplish if I scripted these things! :)

[@willb5272]

@@DanOCan Nah. I’d say you did just fine unscripted and unplugged. Appreciate the time and effort you put into these videos. I sure miss these places. And you help keep a few memories alive, as it were. “If I had a million dollars,” or “If these walls could talk.”

[@NodakFarmer10]

It’s sad to see all the old elevators get burned down and even see the railroad tracks get destroyed there is one older elevator near we’re I live and the don’t use it for grain anymore

[@DanOCan]

Indeed. The railroads were the arteries of western development and seeing so many be abandoned and removed really hurts. And, yes, fire has always been the biggest enemy of grain elevators, whether accidental or intentional.

[@saltyf]

Osrs FTW

[@bradenconway9066]

Is that Esther AB?

[@DanOCan]

@bradenconway9066 Butze

[@tetraxis3011]

This grain elevator is in a Team Fortress 2 map.

[@DanOCan]

I've heard others comment on that too.

[@tetraxis3011]

@@DanOCan Its kind of Iconic.

[@ifelldownstairs960]

2fort irl omg 💀

[@BisharpnearOhio]

Looks like 2fort

[@DanOCan]

Sure does.

[@edwardhill6945]

For a really good dive into how they work, watch this National Film Board video, showing from farmer delivery to loading a boxcar. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHjUi6FrqMSklbs

[@DanOCan]

Yes, have watched that video many times. Wood Mountain is one of those grain elevators I will always regret not getting to see, that setting was so perfect.

[@therealrobkoa]

tf2

[@swedishcrowbar4211]

2FORT

[@DanOCan]

Indeed, it has that look to it.

[@bernardbeaudreau7330]

Grain elevators don't work......the steam engines/stationary engines/electricity that powered them do!

[@tomatoe308]

TF2 SPOTTED

[@DanOCan]

Sure looks like it, eh?

[@tomatoe308]

@@DanOCan yeah

[@OldDogNewTrick]

I have been with my father many times delivering loads of grain from our farm to the local elevator.

[@DanOCan]

It's a rite of passage for every farm kid. :)