Harvest trains were an annual event on the prairies by the 1890's. Encouraged by low fares and promises of high wages, thousands of able-bodied men rode the rails to the wheatlands. Often they were young men who answered the call of the west, or immigrants who were recruited from abroad and told that they would find ready work as harvesters. Hopefully, they would be able to earn enough money to buy the essentials of a homesteader. Some harvesters did stake homesteads after their stint on the threshing gang; more likely they drifted to prairie cities looking for work.
