After rereading my title, I should clarify that I did not burn down a grain elevator but instead captured one on wood using a wood burner.
Growing up in a small town in Saskatchewan, there were always grain elevators gracing the southern town boundary next to the railway tracks.
Even after a cyclone destroyed every elevator in town in 1944, many were rebuilt.
In the late 1960’s there were 11 elevators lining the tracks where I grew up and the town was considered the elevator capital of Saskatchewan. The 11 elevators combined could store over 1,000,000 bushels of grain. (Spinning Stories, page 281).
Before the first elevator was torn down, I think there was a total of 13 elevators.
Today there is only one of these wooden grain elevators left.
I took this photo last fall while visiting my parents and decided to use the photo of the elevator and capture it by burning it onto wood.
I used an app called colorscape which takes a photo and turns it into a digital colouring page. It works really well for photos of buildings and vehicles.
The next step was tracing this black and white image onto a 1/4 piece of log that we had sanded smooth.
I burned in all the lines and added a few extras to make it my own.
The one side of the wedding block that I did for my nephew’s wedding gift was a bit less detailed but from the same image.
When my kids were growing up I often visited the Scholastic book fairs at the school. One year I found this book and had to buy it.
It is a book written and illustrated by a grade five class from Hardisty AB. On the last page it has this:
Standing Guard: Through the eyes of the Sentinels written and illustrated by grade five students of Allan Johnstone School, Hardisty AB.
I feel that the sentiment on this last page is one most likely felt by those who worked at the elevators, farmers that brought their grain there, railway employees that passed by every trip and anyone who lived in a prairie small town.
By capturing the elevator on a piece of wood, I hope to keep the memory of these elevators alive.
When you mention the workers at the elevator, Mr. A. Cottenie comes to mind, he was one of our elevator agents.
Very creative, as usual, to capture memories. Well done!