‘Skyline coming into Wilkie will never be the same’: Wilkie residents say as grain elevator demolished

Rumours around town mentioned the prospect of demolition but community members received no word that it would happen as quickly as it did.

Urlacher and some friends reached out to the local museum to see what the process is for having the facility declared a historic site but were too late.

“We got wind it was going to be coming down, I figured maybe spring,” said Urlacher. “We got the ball in motion a little bit and then all of a sudden they started demolishing and it was too late to save it.”

This is all that remained of the Viterra elevator in Wilkie as of Feb. 10. (photo submitted/Helen Urlacher)

Demolition is not quite done as heavy equipment on-site is pulling it down piece by piece and then hauling it away, according to Urlacher.

The fact that the elevator was fully functional as late as last year is a hard pill to swallow for Urlacher and the other residents who wanted to preserve it.

“That Viterra elevator was definitely savable and useable still,” she said.

In some cases, the wooden walls have been salvaged for other projects, something Urlacher would have liked to see. But many people find the task of removing the wood and then pulling the nails out to be unpalatable.

Photographer Chris Attrell published a photo book on grain elevators in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba that came out two years ago.

Some of the only preservations of grain elevators in Western Canada are in books such as this one by photographer Chris Attrell (photo submitted/Chris Attrell)

To his knowledge, they are demolished because there is a cost attached to having them remain standing but no compensation coming in from business activities.

Still in Western Canada, grain elevators are synonymous with the towns and communities established by European settlers in the last century.

“Grain elevators sort of popped up at the same time a lot of these towns showed up,” said Attrell.

They also shared a timeline with the arrival of the railroad and all needed to ship grain from newly-farmed land.

“Every town had at least one grain elevator, some had nine so as they start disappearing, it has dramatically changed the landscape all across Saskatchewan,” Attrell said.

That change has accelerated in the last 25 years as the owners of the elevators no longer want to pay for maintenance or insurance on large, old buildings that no longer have a useful purpose.

As far as Attrell knows, only one elevator has been repurposed successfully and that is in Manitoba where it was changed into a restaurant.

This particular elevator was built in 1954 by United Grain Growers and it stood right next to another elevator. The second elevator is still operational and is owned by local farmers, who use it to store grain before it is sold.

Urlacher has some advice for other communities who have an elevator that is still standing and don’t want to see it come down– don’t wait.

“If you feel as if you want to save something, don’t wait. Do it right away before it’s gone.

She plans to find the owner of the other elevator to ask them to notify her if they plan to sell it or destroy it.

“Maybe we can work on getting that one at least that’s still standing as a historical landmark in Wilkie,” she said.

There are just over 200 elevators still standing in Saskatchewan.

—

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

‘Skyline coming into Wilkie will never be the same’: Wilkie residents say as grain elevator demolished

What's Trending