Helston Grain Elevator
	On my failed "trip" to find some ghost towns I came across this grain elevator in the hamlet of Helston, two hours west of Winnipeg. It sits out in the middle of the field beside the old ROW that was torn out in the late 80's.

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Mission Report

While on my quest to find ghost towns I came across the symbol of the prairies, the classic wooden grain elevator. This was the biggest elevator I have explored to date and it was quite interesting although the amount of dust and pigeons at times made for some unpleasant smells. I didn't find any ghost towns that day but I did come back with pictures of a forgotten prairie sentinel.  Entry was easy and as I walked in the familiar smell of old musty grain entered and filled my nostrils. The mixing hopper and hopper scale area were in quite excellent condition and I was surprised to see that all the labels on each silo hatch still had identification stickers on it. After admiring this I proceeded to the truck scale area that was unusually dark despite the fact that there was an open window. At the entry to the scale is a round wheel which allows the operator to select which silo the grain being unloaded from the truck would go into. I tried to turn it but after years of neglect the wheel would not budge so I gave up and moved on to the various and hilarious posters that warned farmers of the risk of smoking near an elevator and the repercussions of bringing in Treated Seed. After taking various pictures of the scale I then went to the stairs located near the loading doors to the second floor where a large grain dryer was situated. I marveled at this machine and attempted to take a decent picture of the entire thing but because of a terrible camera lens and a cramped quarter I was only to get a portion of the dryer. Immediately next to the grain dryer is the ladder of death, a wooden ladder extending to the sprout room equating to a climb of nearly six stories or so. Climbing up the stairway in natural light would have been scary enough but to do it in the dark along with a backpack that continually was being caught in various cracks made the trip up even more frightening. When I reached the sprout room I was quite exhausted but my fear did not subside because only 2 x 4's held me on the sprout floor from the bottom of the silo. At the end of the sprout room was a small room that led to the distributor room. There wasn't much in the room so I decided to go across to the extra silo's requiring a jump across a three foot gap with a drop of approximately six stories. When I made it across after numerous attempted but chickened tries I was not comforted by the circumstances I was in as once again only 2 x 4's held me from dropping into the bottom of the silo's. There was not much up there so I decided to go back down to the main elevator offices at the bottom. Back on solid ground I took a deep breath and went into the office that was still full of documents and furniture. After examining that the elevator closed down in 1983 after CNR pulled its line out I found a hollow area underneath the office and followed it until I was under the elevator. However due to the fact that there wasn't much down there and large amounts of grain dust I decided that everything here was explored and that it was time to find more targets.