Edmonton grain elevator defies time separating wheat from the chaff - Action News
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Edmonton

Edmonton grain elevator defies time separating wheat from the chaff

They once stood as the sentinels in cities, towns and villages dotting the prairie landscape. Now they are larger, but fewer and farther between. Edmonton's Alberta Terminals Limited elevator, now almost a century old, has watched as the city grows up around it.

Roof of Edmonton's Alberta Terminals Limited grain elevator offers fine views of rapidly growing city

A prairie sentinel for close to 100 years

9 years ago
Duration 3:04
Watch this video for a history lesson on this Edmonton grain elevator and to learn more about what happens behind the scenes at the Cargill AgHorizons Canada.

At 22 storeys up, the roof of the Alberta Terminals Limited building offers quite the view. (John Robertson)
The Alberta Terminals Limited grain elevatoroncestood as alone sentinel on the western outskirts of thecity.

But now this still-working grain elevatorat127thAvenue and130thStreet has long been surroundedby homes andindustry, so much so that one of thebest views of thegrowing city of Edmontonis from its roof.

Opened by the federal government in 1924 andlaterowned and operated by the province, the elevatorwas purchased by agricultural giant Cargill about a quarter century ago.
Wendy Merchant grew up on a farm in the Peace Country and is now the Cargill plant manager at Alberta Terminals Limited. (John Robertson)

"Last year 400,000tons of grain pass through this terminal," says Cargill's Brad Clark.

Thousands of rail cars a day leave the Alberta Terminals Limited elevator hauling grain to the west coast. (John Robertson)
Seed crops arriveat the terminalfrom Alberta farms andare sorted, cleanedand graded before being loadedonto a train bound forVancouver andthe ocean journey to overseas customers in countries like Japan.

Clark says the terminal may be nearly 100years old, but is equipped withmodern technologysuch asa state-of-the-art colour-sorting camera that literally separates the wheat from the chaff.

You can see more ofthe Cargillgrain elevator on this week's edition of Our Edmonton.

Theweekly magazine show airs on Saturday at 10 a.m. Sunday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 4 p.m. on CBC TV.