Grainnet

Written by Barb Selyem. Photos by Bruce Selyem

There is a small, metal-sided wood elevator across the street from the park in Cloverdale, IA. It sits next to the railbed where the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad had laid its tracks in 1901.

Now that land is part of a stubble field turned over after fall harvest, and the grain elevator is silent. From the outside, the structure appears to be in good condition, but red wood siding, exposed by missing sheets of steel, reveals its age.

Turning the Pages of History
According to Dianne Raveling, who has lived in Cloverdale all her life and is collecting information for a town history book, the elevator was built in 1902.

At first, it was the Charles Coun-selman Elevator. In 1907, it was sold to Edward Stockdale who owned elevators in other Iowa towns.

Records from 1908, 1918, and 1922 name the business as the “Stockdale/Dietz Elevator Co.,” the “Stockdale/Mack Elevator Co.,” and the “Stockdale & Hankins Elevator Co.”

The Farmers Cooperative Elevator of Allendorf purchased the Cloverdale elevator from the Stockdale family in 1963 and the property from the railroad in 1970.

In November 1981, the coop, which was at that time the Northwest Iowa Cooperative, closed the Cloverdale office.

Though the railroad had discontinued service to Cloverdale, the board of directors decided it could still use the old 20,000-bushel elevator for storage.

The board invested about $10,000 to upgrade the bucket elevator, manlift, and wiring.

However, even with the upgrades, the elevator could not keep pace. It was just too small and took too long to load and unload.

From Coop to Farm Storage.
The coop offered the elevator for sale in 1986. Fritz Ommen, a local farmer, decided to buy it for his own farm storage.

“Old timers remember when there were two elevators in Cloverdale, a stockyard, a lumberyard, and a general store,” says Ommen, who still lives on his family’s 1911 farm. “Now, just my elevator is left from that era.

He continues, “I paid $7,500 for it, and that has proved to be a good investment. In fact, it paid for itself in seven years, under a government loan support program for storing corn.

“At first the building was in decent shape, and for a while, we used it and the annex for farm storage,” Ommen says.

“But over time, the wood supports under the elevator started to rot and the foundation started sinking slowly especially when we tried to fill the bins.

“We haven’t used the old house for grain storage in about 10 years. Now it’s just a house for raccoons and a storage place for farm machinery. Eventually, we will be forced to tear it down.

“We still use the office and scale, which were new in 1973, and the 16,000-bushel annex, which we think was built in about 1964.

“Recently, we cut holes in the annex cribbing so we can use tractor augers to fill it. We hope it will last for a while yet, as wood storage is the best you can have.”

Barbara and Bruce Selyem are directors of the Country Grain Elevator Historical Society. For more information, contact the society at 406-388-9282; e-mail: bselyem@country-grain-elevator-historical-society.org.

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