The End of Grain Elevators

Agriculture was the foundation of the economy in the Peace River country after the fur trade declined. Settlers arrived to set up homesteads and looked to farming as their future when they arrived from around 1900 to the beginning of the Second World War. Railroads and roads were established to provide the transportation needed to freight the grain and other agricultural products out of the Peace country.

The Peace River country was seen mainly as an agricultural region, as its production became equal to Manitoba. The success of agriculture in the Peace River country brought mechanization and growth after the Second World War. The demands of forestry and petroleum encouraged the development of more efficient railroads, paved roads, and highways.

The landscape of rural Peace River has continued to change as the larger mechanized farms appeared. Elevators in many rural communities were closed as grain companies and railroads opened larger central service centres. Farmers have the trucking capacity to haul their grain longer distances on the better roads.

Local train stations and elevators are closing, which is bringing changes in the services that rural centres offer. Many fear that as elevators close business will be reduced in smaller centres, bringing the closure of stores, services, and a reduction of the population in the towns. This may threaten schools and postal, government, and other services. These services, like the elevators, may go to larger centres.

The landscape of the Peace River country continues to change, but what that change will be is not known.

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