Doctor Strange

Elon Musk's grandfather was many things: prairie farmer, chiropractor, conspiracy theorist, thrill-seeking aviator. His wackiest vocation? Leader of the Canadian technocracy movement

- JOHN LORINC

THE CANADIAN origin story of Elon Musk begins in 1907, three generations before his birth, in the tiny, whistle-stop settlement of Herbert, Saskatchewan. Even now, Herbert consists mostly of a grain elevator, a level crossing and a tight crosshatch of streets just north of the Trans-Canada Highway, its 700-odd residents surrounded by wheat fields that extend endlessly out toward the horizon. But, at the time, John Elon Haldeman; his wife, Almeda; and their five-year-old son, Joshua (Elon's grandfather), were at the vanguard of a massive migration. More than 320,000 Americans were heading north to the Prairies, lured by offers of land from the Canadian government. They all shared a dream of settling and cultivating the vast swath of terrain that had been tended for millennia by the Plains Cree.

Despite the government's promises of prosperity, money was tight for the Haldemans. Almeda set up a little diner behind a lumberyard on Herbert's main drag to help bolster the family's finances. Then, when Joshua was just seven, his father died from complications related to diabetes, and Almeda signed on to teach at the town's new school for extra cash. In 1915, she married a British-born man named Heseltine Wilson, who owned a large farm and was active in municipal politics. Joshua grew up on his stepfather's property, becoming an athletic kid who boxed, wrestled and took part in bronco-riding competitions. Life in rural Saskatchewan wasn't for the faint of heart, but the unforgiving prairie steppes provided the perfect outlet for Joshua's physical prowess and competitive spirit.