Inglis Area Heritage Committee - Inglis

Inglis Grain Elevators National Historic Site is the last remaining row of standard country grain elevators. Five elevators still stand intact beside an abandoned rail line in sharp contrast to the demolition of thousands of elevators experienced in numerous prairie towns.

This impressive grouping of five standard-plan wooden grain elevators is a rare survivor of the long rows that once dominated Prairie towns. The row was built between 1922 and 1941, Manitoba’s golden age of elevators, by a cross-section of grain-handling firms, including cooperatives and large companies backed by Canadian and American investors. 

Located in a town typical of many that dot the west, these slop-shouldered sentinels are surrounded by their outbuildings, rail line and fields of grain. They stand as power symbols of the Prairie landscape and lifestyle.

Less than 100 standard plan grain elevators stood on the Canadian Prairies in 1892. By the 1920s, when the first four of the elevators in the Inglis Row were built , the number had risen to nearly 4000.

By the 1940s, when the Reliance’s second elevator was added, the number of elevators had peaked at well over 5500.

For over 100 years the grain elevator was an integral part of the prairie skyline. Today, the Inglis Grain Elevators National Historic Site preserves the last complete vintage row of standard plan grain elevators in Canada. Preservation and restoration of this site is a mammoth undertaking.

The Inglis Area Heritage Committee, Government of Canada, and the Province of Manitoba have all contributed to the restoration effort.

The Historic site is open May long weekend to September long weekend,  the hours are 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Guided tours by reservation year-round.  Admission is charged.