For the Few of Us Who Love Grain Elevators

[Alex Hawley]

Came across this pdf file tonight from the Kansas State Historical Society. Nice little photographic essay on the Legacy of Country Elevators.

[rwyoung]

Neato

[df cardwell]

shooting a grain elevator,
at sundown,
as the light is just narrow beam
skimming over the ground,
is as visceral a thrill as you can have.

Well, it is if you've got the 11x14 Deardorff filmed up and waiting...

[mooseontheloose]

Nice article.

I grew up in a tiny hamlet of about 500 people (going back there in a month) and even we had a grain elevator. However, like many other small places, once the rail line got torn up the elevator was demolished. Even as a young teenager back then (this is over 20 years ago now) I thought it was a shame that they couldn't let such an iconic structure be. However, I think it had more to do with fire and safety hazards, rather than competition, that saw the end of the elevator. Whenever I travel back to the Prairies I always look out for them, but there aren't many left, especially in Manitoba (Saskatchewan is another story).

[Joe Lipka]

Grain elevators? I thought this was going to be a thread on developers. What a disappointment.

Grain elevators in the last two issues of LensWork, too. Who says there is nothing to photograph in the American Midwest?

[rusty_tripod]

Count me as one of the aficionados. Ours are no longer functioning as we have become so urban.

Perhaps, Joe Lipka really mean the grain elevators: whiskey, scotch, beer, etc. Still I like the down home, farm-related kind.

[jnanian]

there are a lot of them listed here:

http://www.farmnetservices.com/farm/...tors/52-0.html

[Alex Hawley]

Good link John. Thanks!

[mikebarger]

I miss them, southern Missouri doesn't seem to have to many elevators.

Mike

[Kino]

Now WHO doesn't appreciate a good grain elevator?

A lone cyclone windmill over a watering hole is fine too...

Brings back nice memories; orange dust like talc, sweat crusted on the brim of your hat, the stillness that sucks the air out of your lungs with furnace-like heat, the sweet taste of mossy water in the livestock tank...

miss it.