An eleventh hour fund-raising campaign has saved the last elevator left standing in High River.
The southern Alberta community rallied to raise $100,000 to buy CP Rail owned land in downtown High River so they could take over the abandoned Agricore elevator.
“By the end of the month we hope to own the land,” said Dan Murphy, president of the High River and District Historical Preservation Society.
The society sold bonds worth $500 each and received extra funding from a bank to save the elevator built in 1939. The society preferred private fund-raising to show its members were serious about saving the structure.
In addition, it had to raise a $10,000 bond to prove to Agricore it was serious about owning an abandoned elevator.
The High River elevator was part of a branch line south of Calgary that was abandoned last year. Tracks south of Cayley have been ripped out but CP intends to keep the tracks open from Calgary to High River to store rolling stock.
