Sharples

Something that is slowly disappearing from the prairie landscape.  Once very prevalent, approximately 6 miles apart from each other because that was as far as a team of horses pulling a wagonload of grain could travel before having to change teams.  The once proud Grain Elevators are disappearing and being replaced by the huge grain terminals across the Canadian Prairies. 

In 1923, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)  built a spur line from Drunheller through Knee Hills Creek Valley to Carbon and Sharples is about at the halfway point between the two.  The Parrish & Heinbecker (P&H) Grain Elevator was built in July of 1923 and a second Alberta Wheat Pool Elevator was built in 1927 along with other important buildings. In the 1940’s, Sharples boomed, the elevators were handling 100,000 bushels of grain per year and a handful of small homes popped up for the folks working in the area.  Not only did this line move grain but coal and over time the coal started to dry up and in 1982, the trains stopped coming.  The Wheat Pool Elevator was torn down along with the railway tracks being removed, the only evidence of any train being there is a cement pillars, where the track ran across the Knee Hills Creek.

The P&H Grain Elevator, survived for 41 years and has become a well photographed and loved view of a not so ancient past.  It is just a little over 100 years old and is on the Alberta Register of Historic Places.  Unfortunately, the elevator has been deemed dangerous and the possibility of it being demolished is in its future if someone doesn’t step up to look after the elevator.