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From the Smoky Lake Signal, Wednesday, September 17, 1980. Good-Bye Charlie - Mr. UGG in Smoky Retires. Charlie Ewasiuk, Mr. UGG for the last 27 years in Smoky Lake has recently retired from his position as elevator agent. The 62 year old agent started with UGG 33 years ago in the now disappeared village of Kaleland, 9 miles from Two Hills. Charlie spent 5 years there during the village's hay day. There were stores, post office, pool hall and community centre but no school. That meant their son Ron had to spend most of his time at the wife's parents place near Hairy Hill during the school year. So Charlie and his wife Mary and the family moved to Smoky Lake in 1953 where school facilities were available. There was heavy competition in the grain buying market in Smoky Lake in the 50's. There were five companies, Searle, UGG, Pool, Midland Pacific and Alberta Pacific Grain Co. and five agents, one for each elevator, living in the town. Gradually the companies consolidated. UGG bought our Midland Pacific and that meant Charlie ran two elevators instead of one. Then 10 years ago in 1970 Alberta Pacific and Searle amalgamated to produce the Federal Grain Company. that meant the town was down to three agents. Six months latter the UGG and Federal swapped elevators in many of the centers in Alberta to reduce overhead and that included Smoky Lake. Charlie and his assistant ended up running 4 elevators. Volume through the big elevators has always been slow, said Mr. Ewasiuk. They were built in the horse and wagon days. The farmers with their bigger and bigger trucks changed a lot faster than the elevators. To accommodate the big tandem trucks, the company put in longer driveways and rebuilt the scales but the internal movement of grain is still at the same speed that it was in 1920's when the elevators were being built. They aren't high capacity elevators. While the new elevators can load a railway car in 20 minutes at best it takes 2 hours in the old elevators and sometimes with a lot of interruptions all day, to do the same job, said Mr. Ewasiuk. It will be a few years yet before UGG gets around to building new elevators in this area. First, every point is asking for them and second, Smoky Lake is not a big grain area. In the early years the large number of small farmers fed most of the grain to live stock, that meant there wasn't a lot to sell. Now the consolidation of 4 to 5 quarters under one farmer means more grain going to market, but again there is only so much grain land in the area. Only five miles north the area is sandy, same in the Bellis direction. Sand limits grain production. It leaves a small area to serve. That hasn't stopped Charlie from building up the sale of supplies end of the operation. Eight times he's won a plaque signifying he's one of the top ten UGG supply salesmen in Alberta. Another plaque signifies he's won the honor five years in a row. Now after 33 years in the business Charlie Ewasiuk is taking his well earned early retirement. Time to work at the retirement home he had built in Smoky lake's new subdivision 2 years ago. Time to fish and travel and do things that he couldn't do while serving the farming public 6 days a week for 33 years. Return to the Smoky Lake Grain
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