1920s: Owen Sound's
New Elevators

In the 1920s, Owen Sound got New Elevators. After losing the CPR elevators to fire, the community fought hard to get new elevators for their harbour and improve the community's economy.

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The destruction of the two CPR grain elevators in a fire on Dec. 11, 1911, had a devastating effect on the community. The million-dollar blaze marked the end of an era in Owen Sound. The next year the CPR moved its eastern Great Lakes fleet headquarters from this community to Port McNichol. 

For the next 14 years the grain trade bypassed the port of Owen Sound as it could no longer fulfill a trans-shipment function. 

November 13, 1925, marked the re-emergence of the port of Owen Sound as an important terminus for the Great Lakes grain trade. On that day the steamer Homer Smith arrived at the newly completed elevator terminal.

The one-million-bushel capacity elevator was the result of a long struggle to replace the CPR elevators.  Unsuccessful efforts had been made to raise capital from the rail companies, grain interests, and other entrepreneurial sources. The campaign stalled due to the First World War. 

After the war, the campaign was restarted, but the prospect of a new elevator continued to look bleak. 

In 1922 the Owen Sound Elevator Company was formed under the leadership of A.P. Roberts. Unfortunately, this company was unsuccessful in its attempts to attract local investors. Another roadblock had to be hurdled. 

The harbour needed to be dredged to attract the large grain carrying vessels. However, because of the harbour's low shipping traffic numbers, due to the absence of an elevator, the federal government was reticent to authorize the dredging. 

Owen Sound's civic leaders were faced with a dilemma. They wanted to increase shipping activity by building an elevator; to facilitate the ships they needed to have the harbour dredged. The short-sighted government officials could not see the connection.

During 1923-24, Owen Sound’s city council, realizing the value of an elevator to the community, decided to get involved in the project. After a lot of study, a committee, headed by Alderman J.H. Brownlee, successfully lobbied the provincial government to amend the statutes to enable a municipality “to build, lease, operate, and sell terminal elevators.” 

After a difficult, but successful, campaign, the erection of the new elevator became a reality.

Shortly after the one-million-bushel elevator was completed a problem arose. The new elevator's capacity was inadequate. In 1927, the capacity was doubled and two years later it was doubled again to four million bushels. Owen Sound was back in business as an integral part of the Great Lakes system of transshipping western grain. 

In the 30 years following the opening of the new elevator in November 1925, a total of 336,861,418 bushels passed through the port of Owen Sound. The single largest season occurred in 1945 when 23,509,000 bushels were trans-shipped through this port. 

In the late-1950s grain shipments through the Owen Sound elevators decreased dramatically. The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the accompanying improvements to the Great Lakes system of canals allowed bigger and faster vessels to reach the head of Lake Superior. 

Ports such as Owen Sound were no longer as important in the trans-shipment of grain. Some contend that increased rail shipments of grain to the Pacific Coast may have impacted on the amount of grain coming to eastern Canada.

In the winter of 1996-97 it is interesting to watch the Oak Glen and the Maple Glen race between Owen Sound and Thunder Bay, trying to bring as much grain as possible from the head of Lake Superior before the icy grip of winter makes navigation impossible. 

Sometimes, as I watch one of these vessels unloading at the elevator, or I look out the window and watch them ploughing through the steely blue waters of Georgian Bay, I imagine another era when such activity occurred on an almost daily basis in the glory days of the port of Owen Sound.

A version of "1920s: Owen Sound's New Elevators" originally appeared in my Local History column in the January 11, 1997 edition of the Owen Sound Sun Times.

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