ALBERTA PACIFIC GRAIN ELEVATOR SITE COMPLEX, MEETING CREEK
The community of Meeting Creek developed shortly after the arrival of the railway to the district in 1911. Across the tracks, directly facing the hamlet's main street, the first grain elevator was erected by the Alberta Pacific Grain Company. The date of construction is listed on the designation application form as 1917-18. A photo of the hamlet dated 1914, however, clearly shows this wood frame elevator as the most prominent structure in the skyline.
Although Meeting Creek never developed into Village status, it was for years the centre of a rich agricultural hinterland north of Buffalo Lake. During the 1920s, the Searle Grain Company and the Alberta Wheat Pool also built grain elevators there. In later years, the Alberta Pacific elevator was given a metal veneer and, in 1972, sold to the Alberta Wheat Pool. Today, the structure complements the adjacent railway station, which also dates from the pre-1920 period.
The Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator in Meeting Creek is historically significant in that it represents the economic heart of this rural community and its hinterland from, practically, its inception. It also represents a method of grain handling that predates the large cooperative endeavours of the 1920s onward. Very few grain elevators of this vintage have survived in the province. The presence of early grain handling artifacts inside adds to its historical worth.