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| Keywords: grain elevators grainelevators ogilvie construction thunder bay thunderbay labour collapse ontario canada history fort william fortwilliam kaministiquia river kaministiquiariver kam river kamriver blackandwhite monochrome black and white Date: Spring or Summer 1906 Description: When it was built in 1904, the Ogilvie Flour Mill's grain elevator was touted as having the smallest foundation but the loftiest storage house in the port. Unfortunately, it was this small foundation that would prove defective. Just before 9:00 pm on May 26th, 1906, a lone millwright working in the basement of the brand new grain elevator heard the sudden snapping of beams throughout the structure and ran away as fast as he could. Within minutes, all 26 bins of the 90-foot-high steel elevator containing 380,000 bushels of wheat slipped from their foundation and plunged into the Kaministiquia River, wrecking the receiving house, the wharf, and one of the most modern grain handling plants on the continent. The elevator continued to shift over the next day until finally it stood, poised precariously at a 15 degree angle, about 50 feet from its original location. This photograph shows a crew of men dismantling the top of the elevator after its collapse. Remarkably, the same engineering firm that built the defective structure in the first place was hired to build a new one, twice as large as the first. The firm managed to accomplish this feat in time for the fall harvest. Ogilvie's mill, still producing starch and gluten, was shut down in 1944, but operated again from 1997-2000 as Riverside Grain Products. A spectacular blaze totally consumed the mill in October 2001, leaving only the empty bins that are still visible today. Accession No.: 973.28.11 Q Date: Spring or Summer 1906 Description: When it was built in 1904, the Ogilvie Flour Mill's grain elevator was touted as having the smallest foundation but the loftiest storage house in the port. Unfortunately, it was this small foundation that would prove defective. Just before 9:00 pm on May 26th, 1906, a lone millwright working in the basement of the brand new grain elevator heard the sudden snapping of beams throughout the structure and ran away as fast as he could. Within minutes, all 26 bins of the 90-foot-high steel elevator containing 380,000 bushels of wheat slipped from their foundation and plunged into the Kaministiquia River, wrecking the receiving house, the wharf, and one of the most modern grain handling plants on the continent. The elevator continued to shift over the next day until finally it stood, poised precariously at a 15 degree angle, about 50 feet from its original location. This photograph shows a crew of men dismantling the top of the elevator after its collapse. Remarkably, the same engineering firm that built the defective structure in the first place was hired to build a new one, twice as large as the first. The firm managed to accomplish this feat in time for the fall harvest. Ogilvie's mill, still producing starch and gluten, was shut down in 1944, but operated again from 1997-2000 as Riverside Grain Products. A spectacular blaze totally consumed the mill in October 2001, leaving only the empty bins that are still visible today. Accession No.: 973.28.11 Q | ||||
