GALLERY II - Staley Elevator
The Staley grain elevator, on the western edge of Champaign, Illinois, was one of hundreds of country elevators that dotted the prairie in the first half of the last century. These structures, which typically held between 50,000 and 100,000 bushels, were located within a few hours’ travel time by horse or mule from the farthest farm in the area. They served both a commercial function – providing farmers with a place to sell and store their harvested grain – and a social function: Growers would gather there to exchange news and to drink coffee while waiting for their wagons (and, later, trucks) to be unloaded.
The Staley granary, built around 1910, was operated in its last decades by the Rising Farmers Grain Company, a cooperative that still runs three granaries in central Illinois. Like other country elevators, it was situated on a railroad line, for easy access to distant markets. It was constructed in the classic fashion, of wooden planks stacked flat-wise and crisscrossed at the corners for added strength. It comprised more than 100,000 board feet of old-growth lumber, mainly Douglas Fir and Southern Yellow Pine, in two separate towers.
The capacity of the two towers was about 60,000 bushels, divided among 14 wooden bins. Five concrete silos, added later, increased the overall capacity to more than 150,000 bushels.
Michael Bush, location manager for Rising Farmers’ Bondville elevator, four miles west of Staley, said the Staley facility during the 1980s served as an addition to the Bondville elevator.
“We used it for dead storage,” he said, “since there was no active scale there.” Farmers would bring their grain to Bondville, where the scale was, and the elevator operators would truck it to Staley if they didn’t have room for it at Bondville.
As the Staley elevator neared the end of its useful life, Bush said, pieces of wood from a bin wall would sometimes drop into the soybeans as they were being unloaded, and once Bush’s foot went through a section of flooring.
“That’s how we knew it was time,” said Bush.
In 2008 Bush watched in admiration as Wisconsin Woodchuck took down the Staley elevator.
“I was always afraid it would catch fire and burn down,” he said. “It was nice to see them dismantling it so carefully.”
Click on any of our photographs for a larger view.
Text links to larger photographs:
Staley elevator at beginning of project
Removing sheet metal from exterior of elevator
Deconstruction the Staley elevator
Close-up of wood inside Staley elevator
Halfway finished dismantling the elevator
Loading wall slabs from the elevator
Heartwood beams rescued from Staley elevator
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