The old grain elevator seen in this post is pretty much all that’s left of Sharples Alberta. The location is a shallow valley, scenic, sort of unprairie-like and home to a meandering creek. It’s a nice, idyllic setting.
This building has stood abandoned for greater than forty years and while rough-looking and weather worn, it has a certain majesty. It’s one of the more photogenic elevators we’ve explored and we’ve known a few.
Come along and see it from a decade ago and from a more recent visit. We’ve heard reports of its impending demise and that by later this year, it’ll be gone. Just in case, we thought we should stop in again…perhaps for one last time.
Parrish & Heimbecker Sharples Alberta: abandoned since the 1980s. A history moment with Chris Doering & Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd)
Thanks to “Jeff Nells” for sponsoring this and many other posts at BIGDoer.com. Be like Jeff…
Sharples dates to around 1921-1922 and came to be with the coming of the railway. There was never that much here, however, and no town to speak of. Maybe a couple dwellings, perhaps a post office (suggested) and not one, but two grain elevators. No metropolis and just a siding on the railway. Outside of the elevator, there’s are a few dilapidated sheds and a house foundation left today. And maybe ghosts.
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The road in to Sharples is gravel and always has been. Of all the dots descriptive of a town’s population on maps, it afforded only the smallest one. A little period. On the Canadian Pacific Railway branch through the area, it was a flag stop, meaning there was no depot and any trains offering passenger accommodations would only stop if requested. Otherwise they’d pass right on by.
One dwelling in Sharples remained lived in into the 1980s or thereabouts and there’s still remains of it opposite the elevator.
The track was the CPR’s Langdon Alberta to East Coulee line, built mainly to tap the coal reserves in the Red Deer River valley to the east. It was the company’s Langdon Subdivision and grain moved on the line as well. When coal markets finally dried up in the late 1970s (in steep decline since the 1950s) the eastern section through Sharples closed down soon afterwards. The western half, from Langdon to Carbon, held on until the mid-1990s.
Remnants of the former railway remain and are marked by obvious cuts and fills. At one creek crossing near the elevator, the concrete piers and abutments of a bridge remain as a reminders of what was.
The Sharples elevator dates to 1923 and was built for the firm Parish and Heimbecker. The company goes back to around 1909 and remains in business to this day with a modest network of rural grain terminals. The old “P&H” shield logo is still up there on the side of the building for all to see.
The elevator has a capacity of 28k or 30k bushels (depending on the source) and that’s a pretty typical size for the era. In the 1940s they added two annexes to help increase capacity and this more than doubled the storage capacity. One remains. They removed the other at some point, but at a date unknown. There’s bits of the concrete foundation to mark the location and a high above, the loading pipe that once fed it hangs there in mid-air.
The elevator closed in the 1980s (reports differ, most say 1982, but 1984 also makes mention) and this is sort of concurrent with the closing of the railway line in 1982-ish. Not torn down as one would expect, it’s suggested a local farmer put it to use storing grain for a time. Frugal farmers sometimes repurposed old grain elevators this way.
However, it’s been abandoned for many, many years now. Our first run it with it was in the mid-1990s and it was in that state then.
The structure looks rough and tattered, mostly due to the metal cladding peeling off (a fire deterrent) but structurally it’s probably still pretty solid. That’s thanks the usual laid-flat 2×6″ wood framing used and heavy concrete or stone foundation, which together makes theses buildings something close to indestructible. The elevator when viewed from certain angles appears to have a bit of a lean, however.
This elevator is one of the about a hundred and fifty original style wood grain elevators left in the province. In times past, there was over seventeen hundred and most towns on the Alberta prairies with rail service (a lot) had one or more of these structures.
The Sharples elevator is pretty much as built, but has received some modifications over time. They replaced the original gas-engine power plant with an electric motor in the 1950s and at some point enlarged the driveway for bigger trucks coming into use. The former office, a separate building starting to fall down now, remains in place and is empty.
The elevator is historically recognized, but that doesn’t carry much weight. The government sponsored department that oversees these things has some powers, but can’t stop a building owner from allowing it to deteriorate. Or even prevent them from removing it.
If you visit Sharples please be respectful of its historic significance and be mindful of dangers.
Earlier this year, we heard talk that that building was due to demolished by the trail society that owns the old railbed. Presumably, they’re hoping to develop the former railway into a recreational path at some point (it’s a scenic valley, so it makes sense) and as a safety hazard, they don’t need the liability. One wrong step inside and you’ll find yourself hurt (and we stress caution if you visit).
There’s been much talk on social media, but the source of this story remains unclear. The Alberta Trailnet Society, who owns the elevator, seems silent on the matter. They didn’t respond to any of our inquiries, but I’m sure they’re busy and understaffed. Time will tell.
There’s a barn on the property and it too is starting to collapse. An old article from the Trailnet folks mentions its use in the early days as a place for resting horses used in pulling grain wagons into the elevator. The use of horses was common in rural areas, even into the 1940s and 1950s. The local history book makes no mention of the subject, but perhaps that’s just an oversight.
There was a second elevator in Sharples once, built in 1927 for the firm Alberta Pacific Grain. This company had a fair number of grain elevators across the province. Almost immediately, and for reasons not explained, the structure came under control of the Alberta Wheat Pool, a farmer owned co-op and for much of its existence the largest grain handling network in the province.
The Pool kept it open at least until around the time the railway closed and tore it down soon after. There’s nothing really to indicate it was ever here, but we did notice some half-buried timbers close to where it was. A retaining wall? That’s to the left of, or east of, the P&H elevator and photo evidence in the local history book confirms that was the location of it.
Over the years, we’ve visited the grain elevator in Sharples countless times. As far back as when I (Chris) used to drive oil-field truck in the 1990s and made regular visits to the gas plant just up the road (no camera then). Passed the elevator all the time. One can’t help wonder if this most recent visit will turn out to be our last. Surely, its days are numbered, no matter what happens.
The photos presented below are from a recent visit and from another ten years ago. There’s even a shot captured on film and we do that from time to time. We’ve photographed the Sharples elevator on other occasions, but the images from these two visit are our favourites. A decade has passed and it still looks the same, but for how much longer?
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Date of adventure: May 2015 and June 2025. Location: Sharples, Alberta. Article references and thanks: Canadian Trackside Guides, Alberta Trailnet, the book – Carbon Our History, Our Heritage (Carbon is the next town west), Alberta Register of Historic Places (Hermis) and the Canadian Grain Commission.
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