Edward Shimbashi

Of the many causes fostered by the late Edward Shimbashi, he will be most remembered for his dedication to the mechanization of the potato industry in southern Alberta. During the Depression, Mr. Shimbashi and his father grew close to 25 acres of potatoes near Raymond, Alberta, and sold them locally and throughout Western Canada. 

Mr. Shimbashi introduced the first potato harvester and piler, mechanical beet harvester and large-scale product transportation. These inventions revolutionized the vegetable and potato industry in southern Alberta, and made life much easier for potato and beet farmers. He also purchased one of the first sprinkler irrigation systems in the area in the early 1950s. 

By the mid-1970s Shimbashi had developed 7,000 acres of land into a pivot irrigation system. Using water from the Oldman River, this project was one of the largest successful private irrigation systems in Canada. Edward Shimbashi died in 1989.