INTRODUCTION Kristin Catherwood
hen I was a child, there were three grain elevators in Ceylon which I could see from my bedroom window. I remember driving the eight miles to town in the grain truck with my dad. I remember going up the steep incline of the ramp into the maroon-coloured Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator, hoisting the truck box, and watching the golden stream of grain run into the pit below. I remember the smell of grain dust in the air, the noise of the elevator doing its work, the way the light looked as it streamed in the large open doors. My younger brother, born eight years after me, has no memory of a single grain elevator standing in Ceylon, much less hauling grain to one. Eight years difference between us and that much change. So goes the story, and the living heritage, of agriculture in this province. It is a story of almost constant change. And yet, people hold on to memories of what once was because it still means something to us now. There is perhaps no building more symbolic of farming in Saskatchewan than the wooden grain elevator. Once so common a sight as to seem almost superfluous, the National Trust for Canada named wooden grain elevators to its Most Endangered Places list in 2015, and for good reason. Once numbering in the thousands, only a few hundred remain, and more are lost each year. And for those elevators that do still stand, most are not positioned for an enduring future, but face slow deterioration and neglect. This is not the case in Val Marie, where great efforts have been undertaken to ensure the continuity of this heritage. My own experience with the Val Marie heritage elevator started when I brought a friend to visit Grasslands National Park. An easterner, she was just as fascinated by grain elevators as by some of the last remaining native prairie in Canada. We learned we could get a tour of the elevator by a local man, Maurice Lemire. He took us through the elevator, telling stories about his memories growing up as the son of the elevator agent. It was the first time I had been inside an elevator since hauling grain to one with my dad more than a decade earlier. I recognized that they have something very special in Val Marie - not only have they saved the structure, but they have created an opportunity for people to actually go inside and experience a grain elevator. This living heritage project is intended to celebrate the work the community
