View allAll Photos Tagged GrainElevators
I stumbled across this elevator complex (there's another storage area behind me) on the way from one scouted site to another. There was no name on the elevator and no indication of a town name nearby. That night, I searched the map for a name, but there was nothing: it seemed to be just a stop on the railway line.
Kansas, USA.
This trip to eastern Colorado and Kansas was a substitute (lemonade from lemons, if you will) for a storm chasing trip that same week that got cancelled. It turned out to be a lovely little trip. If you'd like to read about the trip and see some behind the scenes pics and video, take a look at my blog post about the Lemonade from Lemons tour. You can see all the images from the trip in my Colorado and Kansas album.
The lovely elevators are Horizon, this time in infrared.
Horizon, Saskatchewan.
If you'd like, take a look at my other Prairies images. As well, if you're feeling particularly interested, you can read an essay I wrote for Nathan Wirth's Slices of Silence blog on my feelings of connection to the places I shoot, especially the Prairies.
Alberta has such a diversity of landscapes. Living near the Rocky Mountains I often forget our prairie and farmland.
I have photographed these grain elevators many times but felt that this might be my last opportunity. The for-sale sign that was displayed early in the winter is no longer posted. If it has been sold, I fear for its future.
Kane's first grain elevator, built in 1918, burned down in 1947 and the older portion in the picture was built by Patterson in the same year to replace it. The newer part of the set was built in 1981.
Kane also had a UGG grain elevator with two annexes that was demolished in 1996.
The northern silos were demolished before the new owners went broke. The elevator and southern silos, with one million bushel capacity, remain.
This is one of the largest grain elevators in the world. It holds 17 million bushels and is half a mile long.
This is the scene next to that unknown elevator I showed a few days ago, which I have since discovered is a stop in the railway called Tractor. I loved this little elevator and the enormous silos which seem to dwarf it.
Tractor, Kansas, USA.
This trip to eastern Colorado and Kansas was a substitute (lemonade from lemons, if you will) for a storm chasing trip that same week that got cancelled. It turned out to be a lovely little trip. If you'd like to read about the trip and see some behind the scenes pics and video, take a look at my blog post about the Lemonade from Lemons tour. You can see all the images from the trip in my Colorado and Kansas album.
WSORs T-004 road freight sails by a large grain facility outside Whitewater, WI with a quartet of matching SD40s.
There are two grain elevators at Merricourt. They are huge - one concrete and one brick (that's not something you see every day!) - and I assume that Merricourt was once a bustling town. Now it's a near-ghost town with maybe one or two families still living there. Both elevators are abandoned.
Merricourt, North Dakota.
I wrote a blog post about my December 2019 trip to Manitoba and North Dakota, if you're interested in reading about it.
The elevator might look small in this composition, but at one time it would have been virtually the only thing visible for miles around. The railways connected small towns like Parkman (and the farmers around Parkman) to the world - allowing them to send their grain all the way to Thunder Bay and then, through the Great Lakes, out to the world. Once the branch railways closed, the elevators closed and many of the towns that grew up around them were abandoned. The small settlement of Parkman still exists, but just barely.
If you'd like, take a look at my other Prairies images, as well as my ongoing project to photograph old, abandoned grain elevators. As well, if you're feeling particularly interested, you can read an essay I wrote for Nathan Wirth's Slices of Silence blog on my feelings of connection to the places I shoot, especially the Prairies.
An unnamed elevator somewhere in North Dakota. I usually target interesting grain elevators based on online scouting before I even start a trip, but I just came across this one on my journeys.
North Dakota.
I wrote a blog post about my December 2019 trip to Manitoba and North Dakota, if you're interested in reading about it.
Saturday morning, July 29, at 8:00 the elevator will be imploded. Once a huge facility that stored and shipped grain from western Ohio and eastern Indiana. Storage capacity of 2,000,000 bushels. Taken from Hopple Stree viaduct over Mill Creek. All of the grain was gathered from and hauled away by the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. There were five railroad sidings at this location.
This is one of two very large abandoned and crumbling grain elevators in Merricourt (the other is made of concrete). Brick grain elevators are very rare (although I believe there is a second one in North Dakota), so it was fascinating to see this one.
Merricourt, North Dakota.
I wrote a blog post about my December 2019 trip to Manitoba and North Dakota, if you're interested in reading about where this image was made.
After always seeing these on the UP I shot my first one on the BNSF since they have began to lease them. HLCX 3801 leading M-CHIGAL through Mazon, IL.
I visited the old ghost town of Neidpath twice - in 2014 and 2016. This image is from 2016 when there was a lot more rain than this year in which farmers and ranchers are suffering from near drought conditions.
There were once 4 elevators in this town; only two are left. This one (the Pioneer) was built in 1924 and closed in the early 80s.
From the archives: Neidpath, Saskatchewan, Canada. 2016.
At one time, grain elevators could be found every 8 to 10 miles along the railway lines in western Canada. That allowed most farmers to make a round trip to deliver grain with a horse and wagon in one day. Though they started appearing in the late 19th century, the number of grain elevators peaked in 1938, when there were nearly 6,000 primary (country) elevators in the Prairie provinces. Many factors led to the decline of the primary elevator: the Depression, increased mechanization, improved roads for transportation, rural depopulation, the closing of branch lines of the railway and the buying out or merging of the grain companies. In 2004 there were only 197 primary licenced grain elevators left in Saskatchewan. Many of the old, wooden elevators have been destroyed, but some, like this one in Dorothy Alberta, remain - weathered but beautiful and stalwart.
Source: Dommasch, H. (1986) Prairie Giants. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books.
If you'd like to see more of my images from that trip, take a look at my Grain Elevator album or my Canadian Prairies album
Abandoned grain elevator, Buffalo, N.Y., take three — light source hidden behind the columns. This one is my favorite of the three, due to the silhouette glow created by the backlighting.
I've shot the two elevators at Horizon before, but this time there was a lovely storm over them (you can see some video footage of it in the blog linked below). I spent a really enjoyable couple of hours there as the storm morphed and changed and then blew over. This Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator with its wonderful and slowly collapsing annex was built in 1923, one of three elevators that once lined Railway Avenue in Horizon.
Horizon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
I wrote a blog post about my springtime Saskatchewan trip that has some behind-the-scenes pics and stories which you might enjoy.
I love photographing on the Canadian Prairies and I've been travelling there to do so since 2013. If you'd like to see my other Prairie images, feel free to take a look at the album.
In the foreground is the Federal grain elevator in Horizon, Saskatchewan. It was built in 1922 and closed in 1999. Interestingly, it was designated as a Municipal Heritage Property in 2004, which makes it eligible for government funding for preservation, though the town around it has been abandoned.
If you'd like, take a look at my other Prairies images, as well as my ongoing project to photograph old, abandoned grain elevators. As well, if you're feeling particularly interested, you can read an essay I wrote for Nathan Wirth's Slices of Silence blog on my feelings of connection to the places I shoot, especially the Prairies.
The other elevator at Horizon, the Sask Pool elevator, was built in 1923 and also closed in 1999. The annex, probably built in the early 60s like the one on the Federal elevator, has developed a very interesting wobble and lean.
If you'd like, take a look at my other Prairies images, as well as my ongoing project to photograph old, abandoned grain elevators. As well, if you're feeling particularly interested, you can read an essay I wrote for Nathan Wirth's Slices of Silence blog on my feelings of connection to the places I shoot, especially the Prairies.