Grainswest - Fall 2022

Fall 2022 Grains West 18 PERSON PLACE & THING Farm historian Shelly McElroy has focused her research on lesser-known stories of Alberta’s agricultural past. ranchers were doing in this time period. And what about Indigenous people? They had to change from warriors and hunters to farmers and ranchers. And as we know, everybody 100 years ago was learning how to farm on the Great Plains. And there are a lot of things that happened that nobody anticipated. People used plows to manage weeds. That worked on the eastern half of this continent, but here in southern Al- berta, we cannot farm like that. We do not have enough rain, we do not have enough humidity and we have the wind. That practice made the soil just blow away. Lastly, I really wanted to tell this story about how Alberta transformed itself into an agricultural superpower that’s capable of feeding ourselves and also helping to feed the world. GW: What are some of your favourite historical benchmarks? SM: My little brother was in Grade 5 or 6 and he had to pick a hero and write a report. My dad said, “Well, I think you’re gonna pick a farmer, because nobody ever picks a farmer.” So, he picked Charles Noble. Noble was a farmer who was very interested in dryland farming and he came up with the Noble Blade, an imple- ment that cut weeds at the root, and did not turn the soil over. And everybody in our family ended up learning about this Alberta farmer, who came up with the biggest invention of the 20th century. Also, I just “met” Nellie Freeman through research about two months ago and she has changed my life. In 1921 Nellie won two turkeys in a raffle and she never had anything to do with turkeys but she got a pamphlet from the Department of Agriculture. By 1929, she had 3,000 birds and the Palliser Hotel was among her many customers. We now use Nelly Freeman as a verb around Pioneer Acres. We say, “We’re just gonna go Nelly Freeman this.” What we mean is, we’re go- ing to get advice from a sensible, reputable source and then go figure this out. GW: What did your library residency entail? SM: I had office hours at the library and did one-on-one consultations. People came to my office or booked a Zoom call, and I did my best to help them with their own research projects and the things they’re passionate about and interested in. I created programs as well. One focused on a tractor that was built in Calgary by the Pioneer Tractor Company. It’s 110 years old. And the reason I knew about this tractor is because we have one at Pioneer Acres. There are maybe 10 Pioneer 30-60 tractors left in the world and we’ve got one. I did a presentation about Alberta turning into an agricultural superpower and how that happened. Then I did some other presentations about things like the Noble Blade and farming in Alberta a century ago. GW: Why do you think it is especially valuable to broaden public knowledge about Alberta agriculture? SM: Increasingly, farming is so foreign. Audiences aren’t familiar with it and even in Alberta with Charles Noble’s important invention, a lot of people don’t know who he is. People sometimes think history doesn’t matter. They have said to me, “I like the stories, but I don’t see why they matter today.” Even though we have been in a drought in southern Alberta this year, if you’ve lived in the city, there’s a good chance you didn’t know about that, because we don’t have black blizzards here anymore. And that’s because 100 years ago, people like Charles Noble took action and came up with inventions to make sure we farm in a way that protects our soil. I want people to know that history does impact their life today. For more information on Pioneer Acres Museum, visit pioneeracres.ab.ca .