Grain Elevators of Thunder Bay

Concrete cathedrals of the prairie grain trade lining the harbour

Thunder Bay's grain elevators are the city's most distinctive architectural feature — long blocks of concrete silos along the waterfront, built in the early twentieth century to ship prairie wheat through the Great Lakes. Some are still operating, others sit empty and slowly weathering. The Saskatchewan Pool 7 elevator, the Richardson Pier elevator, and the United Grain Growers elevator are the easiest to see from public roads.

Best viewed from across the water on Marina Park or from the bridge to Mission Island. They are not a sight in the conventional sense — there are no tours — but for industrial archaeology and a sense of the city's identity they are unmissable. Photographers should go in late afternoon when the concrete catches the low sun.

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At its peak in the 1960s, Thunder Bay was the world's largest grain port, and its line of elevators along the Kaministiquia River and Lake Superior shore was the visual symbol of the trade. The buildings are so distinctive that the architectural historian Reyner Banham called them the 'cathedrals of the prairies.'

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