Not only is Granum a "little" town, it is officially the smallest designated Town in the province of Alberta with approximately 400 residents in the rural farming community. Granum was once known as Leavings on Willow Creek where the Bull-team Freighters stopped for water and to unload freight. Bull teams consisted of eight teams, or 16 oxen, yolked together and pulling three freight wagons linked by sturdy chains. In 1907, Leavings' name was changed to Granum, a Latin word for grain, which is most fitting for this community. There still remains a grain cleaning plant built in 1963 which is still operational.
The park is opposite the town hall, officially the "Town Office", and is either the smallest or the largest small town park we have encountered. It occupies a narrow strip of treed, grassed land beside Railway Avenue, behind which is a gravel parking strip. Behind that is a very large open area of unkempt grass which may or may not be part of the park.
The focus of the park is a red granite plaque dedicating the park to George Wesley, mounted on a small rough cairn of mortared cut stones. Flanking the cairn are concrete piers which support the steel posts of a bell tower. Hanging from the centre of the tower's header is a brass bell with a double sided clapper. Atop the header are the flags of Canada and Alberta. The bell would be either from the first fire hall, built in 1910 or 1911, or a local school. Behind the tower is a dedicated bench.
Following is the story of the man to whom this park is dedicated, "One of North America's Wheat Barons".
George Wesley
George Wesley was born in New Boston, Illinois, on October 7,1903. The Wesley story begins with George's dad, Charles Wesley, who brought the family out from Illinois to the raw prairies of Alberta in 1909. They settled first at Winnifred; later they moved south to Orion in the short grass country and it was there that George got his first job with the Yeast and Higdon cattle outfit. The next move was to New Dayton where George became foreman on the "Doc" Tenney wheat farm comprised of 10,000 acres.
In the summer of 1927 he married Anna Brandley in Lethbridge, and for a number of years they farmed and ranched in the Wrentham district.
In 1927 George Wesley was a farm laborer. He finally bought a quarter section of land which gave him his start and he extended his farm operations as the years progressed. Just a short 15 years later, he was claimed to be the biggest wheat farmer in Canada and operator of over 26 sections of farm land. This farm was the dream for which he had saved and planned. In the 1942 season he raised a quarter of a million — 250,000 — bushels of wheat. This bonanza crop gave George the title of "One of North America's Wheat Barons".
In 1943 George extended his operations to a ranch situated in the Porcupine Hills west of Granum. He purchased the land of the following ranchers: Ed. Fletcher, Harry Dow, George Fletcher, Charlie Vaile, Joe Johnson, Ralph McDougall, Mel Baird, Henry Clifton, Powers family, Ernie Hoglund, Algot Ostrom, Eddie Reardon, Wes Hedley and the Round Up Ranch of Bob Baird. George owned and operated the Wesley Ranch with the 32 brand for 29 years until the time of his death in 1972.
If any man can be singled out as the key figure in bringing about the tremendous improvement in the caliber of baseball in Southern Alberta, this man certainly was George Wesley. It all started many years ago when he was a ballplayer and then an umpire. In 1938 he formed his own team in Wrentham, and after moving his business operations to Granum, his name became synonymous with baseball in Southern Alberta.
He had always had a soft spot in his heart for good baseball, but it was around 1950 that he decided to form a club that all Alberta would remember and respect. The result was the famous Granum White Sox, a team that won everything there was to win in Alberta Senior Baseball circles.
George was instrumental in the formation of the Southern Alberta Baseball League and the Granum White Sox were the Foothills Wheatbelt League Champions for many years. They were the Alberta Senior Baseball Champions in 1954, '55, '56, '57 and '58. Besides winning the Provincial Championship, they won most of the big-money baseball tournaments played in those years.
From the book Leavings by trail, Granum by rail