Coalhurst's only grain elevator first began towering
above the C.P. rail siding at that station in 1928.
Built by Ellison Milling & Elevator Company Limited,
with a capacity of 40,000 bushel, it served the
community well in the days when horse-drawn
wagons and Model T Ford trucks hauled grain there,
and is still serving farmers of the district. Included
in the original construction was a small office, a flour
and feed shed, and a small frame building constructed
at the side of the office housing a Kipp-Kelly motordriven
hammer mill for chopping producers' grain. The grain
elevator contained 21 separate bins with each bin
holding from 800 bushel to 2,000 bushel. The flour and
feed shed was large enough to accommodate
approximately 50 ton of product, manufactured by
the Ellison Milling operation in Lethbridge and trucked
to Coalhurst for distribution to the retail merchants in
the townsite and to farmers in the area.

During the first part of the second Great War, a three bin
wooden annex was constructed having a capacity of 42,000
bushel, which was later reduced to 28,800 bushel after the
north west bin was cut off.

The first elevator manager was Edmund C. " Ed" Baines,
one of the country's oldest grain buyers. He had been
trained in Manitoba in the year 1901 and eventually was
hired by Ellison's in 1916 at their Milk River elevator.
After working a few months in the elevator at Lethbridge,
he was assigned to operate the very small country
elevator at Kipp, a mile west of Coalhurst. He then
commenced his 21 year term at Coalhurst when the
building was completed in 1928 and continued to serve
customers and producers until 1949 when he retired.

Ed's son, Alfred, has a few poignant memories of his
father and the community. As a young man, Alf sometimes
walked across the high level bridge from Lethbridge,
climbing down in a manhole when the occasional train
came by when he was still on the bridge. He helped his
father handle grain and sell the flour and feed. He recalls
that his father never owned a car - except for 24 hours when
he won a vehicle at the Lethbridge Exhibition and promptly
sold it the next day. He "thumbed" his way to and from
Coalhurst and was lucky to make the trip to the elevator
and back to his home in Lethbridge and usually on time.
Ed usually stayed in a one-roomed building on the
elevator premises during the week, especially in severe
weather. Alf recalls staying there at times and says the
small coal stove kept it warm and cozy. The bed was
comfortable and the table and chairs were often
occupied by fellows who dropped in to play cards or
partake of the good food sent out from Lethbridge by
Mother Baines.

Alf also has a vivid memory of the coal mine explosion
December 9, 1935 which mine was about a mile from
the elevator, and he and his father helped bring up
16 burned bodies.

Another incident was when his father fell while working
in the annex and hit the rods in the bins, breaking his ribs.
Fortunately the Coalhurst hospital was not too far away.

One time the office was broken into and the safe cracked
open with an ax, and everything was turned upside down.
The burglars were rewarded for their efforts with a few cents
in change.

A special feature of the Coalhurst elevator was the grain
cleaner on the cleaning floor over the driveway scales.
This was a tri-rotor cleaner powered by a 10 horse power
motor. The cleaner did what we would now call a rough
cleaning job for many of the producers in that area.
The dust and the chaff were propelled by a fan into a
cyclone and this material was collected and bagged.
Some of the runs were satisfactory and some weren't,
depending upon the type of dockage in the producer's grain.

After Ed Baines retired in 1949, several other elevator
managers served at Coalhurst. The next was Charles "Charlie"
Martin who was a very likeable Saskatchewan grain man
and he handled the business until his unfortunate passing
on January 17, 1964. He took pride in keeping the weeds
down and running a tidy place. The insurance inspector
who checked the property there made this remark, "This
agent is an especially good housekeeper and has maintained
a good fire guard around the premises. "

A Lethbridge man, Ed Rae, served the Ellison Company
for the next two and a half years.

Elevator #1

Elevator Managers
H. Blaney-- Sept. 18, 1929---0ct. 8, 1929 Superintendent
W. D.Anderson
W. H. McCaugherty-- Oct. 8, 1929--Jan. 3, 1930,
Sept. 18, 1929 to Oct. 31, 1936
H. Blaney--Jan. 3, 1930-- Apr. 7, 1930
G. C. McLeod--Apr. 7, 1930 --May 15, 1930
Closed-- May 15, 1930-- Jul. 31, 1930
W. Blaney--Aug. 1, 1930-- Mar. 31, 1931
Closed--Mar. 31, 1931-- Jul. 31, 1931
W. H. McCaugherty-- Aug. 1, 1931--Oct. 31, 1936
Closed --Oct. 31, 1936