Over the past couple of years, a volunteer group in Nanton has been showcasing their heritage elevators in new and exciting ways.
“Our goal has been to really revitalize the elevators,” said Leo Wieser, president of the board of the Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre Society.
“We’re trying a new tactic — turning them into a civic and cultural centre.”
And it’s an effort you can’t help but notice when driving past the elevators at night.
Giant, colourful images are projected on their walls — as well as movies in summer and for Halloween. Wieser and his fellow volunteers hope the elevators will one day become a space for concerts, theatrical presentations, and events such as poetry readings.
The Nanton Elevators, which face Highway 2 when you’re heading north through the town, are the last remaining three from a row of seven. They were built in the late 1920s on a former Canadian Pacific line that ran from Calgary to the U.S. border.
Two of the elevators are twins, which are painted green and were last owned by the Alberta Wheat Pool. Pioneer was the last owner of the big, single orange one. In the 2000s, rail traffic ceased, the rail tracks were removed and the elevators were slated for demolition.
“For the twins, it was literally hours before the bulldozers were going to roll in before they got saved,” said Wieser.
A committee of community citizens started the “Save One” campaign in 2001, but they actually saved three of seven elevators. The committee was quite active and set up an elevator museum to preserve their history before winding down their activities in about 2013.
The current board, which consists of nine volunteers, still has the museum and a collection of artifacts. But the group has started to showcase the elevators themselves.
“Part of our idea of getting them active is to project on the sides of the elevators, because the twins, with the weather, they’ve lightened up a bit,” said Wieser, who has a background in theatrical lighting design and special effects.
“There’s a cool bowl area that people can drive into (for a drive-in movie). The very first movie was last Halloween. We played the silent film ‘Nosferatu.’”
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Another ’20s-era movie, Buster Keaton’s “The General” also played last summer.
This spring, the elevators were a satellite venue for the Calgary Animated Objects Society and projected Heather Henson’s curation of “Handmade Puppet Dreams.” (Henson is a puppeteer and the daughter of Muppet creator, Jim Henson.) The Calgary Animated Objects Society also projected the movie “Little Shop of Horrors” on the elevators this fall, and the town of Nanton helped sponsor the showing of “A Nightmare before Christmas” on Halloween.
The elevators have also become up themselves, with projections such as giant snowflakes for Christmas, hearts for Valentine’s Day, shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day and pumpkins and cobwebs for Halloween.
The location is ideal, said Wieser, because there are not a lot of other light sources around and its a busy highway.
“We get anywhere between 4,000 to 6,000 travellers a day going down that highway,” he said. “We wanted to liven up the elevators and bring a little bit of joy to people.”
Given Wieser’s background, it’s not a surprise he’s partial to light shows. But there was also a strong desire to make Nanton stand out.
“Within our board and with the mayor, we all discussed what would revitalize the town. Things with colour and art revitalize and bring that joy, but also the feeling that something is happening,” he said. “We wanted to make an impact. We wanted to say, ‘Hi everybody, we’re still here, and we need your attention.’”
The feedback has been extremely positive and the group is considering fundraising activities, and members have been talking to musicians who would like to perform at the elevators.
Making them a community gathering place wouldn’t be a new thing, added Wieser, noting that in the old days farmers delivering would typically linger to have a cup of coffee (or a beverage of another sort) and sit and talk or play some cards.
“It was a civic social centre — it was the social media of the time. It’s how people would have found out what was going on,” he said. “In a way, by saying we’re a civic centre, we’re bringing back the whole social aspect of the place where people can come and talk and have discourse and meetings.
“That, to us, is just as important as interpreting the agricultural history, which is also important because people are becoming so disconnected from farming and where their food comes from,” he said.
The volunteers also want to expand the reach of the Nanton Elevators and attract more tourists (and maybe donors) from Calgary and Lethbridge, he added.
“Calgary is 40 minutes away from here. It’s not that far — driving across Calgary takes 40 minutes.”
To learn more, go to nantongrainelevators.com.
