ALBERTA WHEAT POOL GRAIN ELEVATOR NO. 1, SCANDIA
After the Canadian Pacific Railway extended its track from Medicine Hat to Calgary in 1883, land along the rail line became viable for homesteading. The CPR also acquired 3 ½ million acres of land between Brooks and Calgary as part of its agreement with the Dominion government to build its line. Here, the CPR subdivided 80 acre plots and proceeded to advertise this land for sale to immigrant farmers. Because much of the land was bereft of adequate water supplies, the CPR undertook a vast irrigation scheme off the Bow River to make it more attractive. The project was completed in 1914, but, due to the war in Europe, settlers did not arrive in large numbers until after the armistice. Many more arrived after the CPR pushed through branch lines to parts of the district in the late 1920's. One of the lines extended south of Brooks to the hamlet of Scandia, where a post office had been opened in 1924. In 1928, the hamlet was graced with an Alberta Wheat Pool elevator.
The Wheat Pool elevators were a part of the farmers co-operative movement in Alberta. They had been promoted from within the United Farmers of Alberta by Henry Wise Wood. A major complaint of the province's farmers had been the control exercised by independent grain companies which could fix prices at their will. As a result of this, and the extreme fluctuations in the international demand for grain, farmers had often gone from prosperity to bust within short periods of time. According to Wood, the answer lay in a co-operative through which farmers could pool their grain and have it sold at opportune times and share equally in the profits. He managed to convince the UFA of this, and, when the Alberta Wheat Pool was formed in 1923, Wood became its first president. Before long, Alberta Wheat Pool elevators were to be found in most farming communities which had rail access. They eventually became the largest grain company in the province.
That the first elevator in Scandia should have been a Wheat Pool one was appropriate, for the farmers in this district had been coming together for some time over their collective bitterness against the CPR for having sold them their land. Though the yields of grain were high, 80 acres was simply not enough land on which to establish a profitable farm. The farmers formed associations to deal with the CPR, which argued that its irrigation projects were not turning a profit, despite what the farmers were paying for water. Finally, in 1934, a number of them at the eastern end of the area, led by one Carl Anderson, formed what they called the Eastern Irrigation District, which took over the management of the water supply there from the CPR. Despite its cost, the irrigated water proved its worth in dry years, when other parts of southeastern Alberta were succumbing to drought conditions.
The productivity of the land in the Scandia district was such that, in 1937, the Federal Grain Company also built an elevator there. With World War II, the demand for western Canadian grain rose, and the train service to Scandia became thrice weekly. Following the war, the Pool bought out the Federal elevator, and soon shut it down. Eventually, improved roads were making it convenient for farmers in the northern parts of the district to take their grain to Brooks, and, so, the elevator was closed in 1977, as was the train service to Scandia. The elevator, however, was acquired by the Eastern Irrigation District Historical Park and Museum, and is now the centerpiece of an agricultural museum. In 1994, it was designated a registered historic site.