Alberta grain elevators given ‘historic designation’ status from the province
Posted Apr 8, 2022 6:21 pm.
Last Updated Apr 9, 2022 10:35 am.
If you have ever travelled through Nanton on Highway 2 you can’t miss the historic grain elevators as you drive through town. Those elevators have now received ‘historic designation’ status from the province.
Grain elevators, also known as ‘prairie sentinels’, used to dot the skyline across the prairie provinces by the thousands.
But the elevators have dwindled over the past few decades as they are torn now due to fires and demolitions resulting in only a few hundred left in the province.
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President of the Canadian Grain Discovery Centre, Leo Weisser, says this status will make it easier for them to protect them against fire and theft.
“It opens us up to grants and to other programs that are offered by the different levels of government,” said Weisser.
“So what we’re trying to do is push forward with a master plan to keep the site with its historical attributes but also to develop it so that more people from Nanton and all over the world can visit us,” he added.
The society will be celebrating the designation on Saturday at noon at the elevators.
Two of the remaining elevators in Nanton, south of Calgary, are receiving its special designation this weekend.
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The oldest grain elevator in Alberta is located in Raley, near Cardston, which was built in 1905. And the oldest grain elevator in Canada is in Elva, Manitoba, burned to the ground yesterday, as it was being demolished.
