The lonely grain elevator in Kirkpatrick Alberta is a survivor and has stood silent vigil for about a century. It outlasted the railway line that served it, and the various companies that owned it. This prairie sentinel has endured while so many other wooden elevators have fallen. Normally torn down when no longer of use, a private individual purchased this one after closing and this no doubt is the reason why it’s still here.
We’re in the scenic Red Deer River Valley just west of Drumheller and the elevator is easily seen right next to the highway. You can’t miss it. Looming over folks driving by, it’s doubtful many give it much thought, other than seeing it as a passing curiosity. What’s it doing here and what is it for? Now off to the tour the badlands…
Andrew Farms Kirkpatrick Alberta – 100 years and still standing. In the beautiful Alberta Badlands with Chris Doering & Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd)
Thanks to “Donna Evans” for sponsoring this and other posts at BIGDoer.com. Be like Donna…
We’ve visited the Kirkpatrick grain elevator many times over the last couple decades and it seems little changed in that time. The photos presented below are from 2013 and also 2025, while documenting the Gran Fondo bicycle tour of the valley. You could do 50, 75, 100, or 160km.
The Kirkpatrick grain elevator has been here since 1924. Originally built for the Alberta Pacific Grain Company network, it changed hands a few times (as grain elevators often do) as a result of mergers and acquisitions. It has a capacity of 35k bushels and is pretty typically of the era. Nearly every small town on the prairies had an elevator or elevators just like it, but most are history now.
The Federal Grain Company owned Alberta Pacific starting in the 1940s and folded this firm into the parent company in 1967. The elevator remained a Federal Grain property until the Alberta Wheat Pool purchased their assets in 1972. Federal had elevators in the other prairie provinces too. The Saskatchewan and Manitoba Pools respectively, acquired those ones at the time. All the Pool grain companies are gone now and relegated to the history books.
The Kirkpatrick elevator closed in the early 1980s and was bought by Andrew Farms soon after, who we assume used it for farm grain storage. We’re unsure if that’s still the case.
It was not odd for other firms to build elevators in direct competition with each other at specific grain loading points. Kirkpatrick was a small market, however, so this was the only grain elevator ever built here. At one time the elevator had a annex on its east side and we base this on old undated pictures we sourced showing it. When added or removed is not clear.
An annex is an addition to help increase the capacity of an elevator and they were common. They came in many shapes and forms.
Metal sheathing covers the elevator and some firms did this as a fire mitigation measure. Grain dust can be explosive and once ignited, it’ll likely consumer everything. It was common practice to display the town (or siding’s) name on the side of an elevator.
The rail line here was the CPR’s Langdon Subdivision which ran from its namesake town near Calgary to the Drumheller coal fields. It continued on to East Coulee, where there were further connections east. This section came through in 1921 and Kirkpatrick remained the end of steel for a couple years. Construction eastward did not commence again until 1924 and this pause is a bit of a mystery.
For many decades the railway was a busy place and trains laden with grain or coal from one of the many mines that dotted the valley, passed by. The market for the latter dried up in the 1950s, although a few mines hung on for another decade or two. With the loss of that traffic there was not enough grain moving to warrant continued use of the line. Loading points were few and shipments sporadic.
The railway abandoned this section and pulled it up in the early 1980s. By this point, traffic was a trickle and unable to support continued use.
The tracks paralleled the road here, but little evidence of the roadbed remains. You have to look close. The rails passed by on the far side and a siding off this track served the elevator. Where those bins are is where grain was loaded onto rail cars.
Flat land here is at a premium in places – the Red Deer River on one side and steep slopes on the other – and in some places the highway sits atop the old roadbed. Heading westbound, the old railway line takes a sharp bend soon after Kirkpatrick, and disappears up a side valley.
Kirkpatrick was never a town in the traditional sense and just a siding, with this grain elevator. There may have been a post office in the area and perhaps a couple nearby houses, and farms of course, but that’s it. Given the valley is not that wide, nor with much agricultural land, most farming took place on the flat prairie above.
We noted a memorial at the base of the elevator on our 2013 visit and we guess this means someone died nearby. An auto accident? There appears to be no record, so at best we can only guess. A hard hat next to the cross suggests the person who perished(?) was in construction or oil work perhaps. What ever the case, it’s sad. The memorial is no longer there.
“Chris and Connie delve into the nooks & crannies of the Canadian Prairies (ed: we visit the mountains too!). They detail interesting histories accompanied with revealing photos. A lot of information and work and the results are fantastic.” Naomi Kikoak.
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Date of adventure: May 2013, and July 2025. Location: Kirkpatrick, Alberta. Article references and thanks: The late Jim Pearson’s Vanishing Sentinels books, Canadian Trackside Guides and miscellaneous Alberta Government records.
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