Rural Scenes from Alberta

It’s hard for many people to grasp how vast the Canadian prairies are.  They stretch for thousands of miles, bordered on the west by the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, and in the east merging with the Canadian Shield (lake and bush country) in eastern Manitoba.

The prairies are relatively flat, especially the further east you go.  There’s rolling hills and patches of forest to add some contrast, but most of the land is dedicated to agriculture.

The prairies are definitely Canada’s breadbasket, growing immense crops of assorted grains that feed not only Canadians but many people around the world.  Numerous meat crops are also raised here, notably excellent beef (but also pork and poultry).

I’m fond of photographing old farmhouses and old barns, and there are many in Alberta.  Here are some examples:

The Rocky Mountains end rather abruptly, merging with the Alberta prairies….

Crops need to be stored before they are shipped to market. The scene below shows two large metal grain storage containers, and an older structure that likely was used to store farm equipment.

Alberta grows a lot of hay to feed livestock during the long cold winter months.  Hay is generally stored in massive rolls, each of these weighing about a thousand pounds.  Heavy equipment is required to move and store the rolls of hay.

Oil is a highly lucrative product, and there is a lot of oil in Alberta….

I close this post with scenes of a vanishing icon — the old-style wooden prairie grain elevators.  These are being replaced by tall metal grain storage towers.  I can understand the need for the change, but the visual of each prairie town being marked by one of these quaint structures is something I’ll miss.