Grainnet

Written by Barb Selyem. Photos by Bruce Selyem

In 1904, the Great Southern Railroad purchased an 80-foot right of way between Dufur and The Dalles in Wasco County, OR. It laid tracks following the course of the Fifteen Mile Creek and provided freight, mail, and passenger service.

Part of the right of way was acquired from a man named Rice, who owned a ranch along the route. Recognizing an opportunity to ship grain to market by rail rather than team and wagon, a group of farmers built a warehouse for storing sacked grain.

The warehouse was partially on the right of way and partially on Rice’s property. The rail siding became known as “Rice,” and the farmers used it until the Great Southern went broke in 1937.

World War I created a shortage of grain sacks. The hemp for making them was imported from India, and German submarines were sinking the ships. Sack material became scarce or unavailable altogether.

Sack to Bulk to Sack Storage
In 1916, the farmers decided to build a grain elevator, which would allow them to handle grain in bulk. It became known as the Rice Union Elevator.

This 60,000-bushel structure is about 80 feet tall and is built of 2x8, 2x6, and 2x4 cribbing lumber. There is no siding over the cribbing, and the elevator was never painted. Instead of a manlift, there is a stairway that zigzags up to the headhouse.

At first, the two wood legs were powered by a 1-cylinder, 15-hp Fairbanks Morse gas engine connected to a line shaft. To start the engine, the operator would turn the 4-foot flywheel using his foot, which he inserted between the spokes. A 3/8-inch steel cable, instead of a rope, belt, or chain, extended from the line shaft upwards to turn the head pulley.

Later, the original engine was replaced with a 4-cylinder gas engine that had a crank like a Model T Ford. Eventually, a battery and switch were installed, making it easier to start. Electricity came to Rice in 1939, and electric lights were installed in the elevator. The second engine was never replaced.

After the end of World War I in 1918, the farmers went back to using grain sacks. Sacking was cheaper and easier for them than handling grain in bulk, since they were using special side-hill combines for the steep terrain. These combines were not adapted for bulk grain until World War II and another gunnysack shortage.

Fred Fax, whose parents Nicholas and Gertrude Fax purchased the Rice ranch in 1910, remembers all too well the backbreaking work of sacking grain.

“I went to work full-time on our ranch in about 1935. During harvest, there were five men on a combine crew—the tractor driver, the machine man, the head tender, a sack jigger, and a sack sewer,” he said.

“As the grain came out of the combine, the jig man held each sack on a platform called a jig. When the sack was full, he handed it off to the sewer who sewed it shut and then placed it on a chute that could hold five or six sacks. When the chute was full, he pulled a rope releasing the sacks onto the ground.

“My job was to lift the sacks on to a truck. Each sack weighed between 135 to 150 pounds, de-pending on the jigger, the test weight of the grain, and whether it was soft white or Turkey red wheat. The truck held about 60 sacks, and once full, I drove to the warehouse, transferred the sacks, and returned for another load.”

Fred continues: “Beginning in the early 1940s, there was another gunnysack shortage. We scav-enged for coffee, potato, or feed sacks, whatever we could find, filled them with grain at the combine, emptied them at the elevator, and then returned them to the field, so they could be used again.

“We also built a 38-foot cribbed side-hill elevator from 2x4 and 2x6 lumber to help alleviate the shortage problem. Its three bins hold a total of 15,000 bushels of grain, and the only mechanisms it has are gravity and scoop shovels.

“To fill it, we would drive the truck up the hill and back into the elevator over a bridge. The first time we loaded it, we were dumping sacked grain. To empty it, we simply drove the truck under the spouts at the bottom and opened the chutes.

“We quit using the side-hill elevator in the 1970s, as it was unhandy and just too much work to unload. The building itself is still in good shape, but after 60 years, the bridge is pretty scary.”

Changing Hands
In the late 1950s, Rice Union Elevator Co. was dissolved, and its elevator was sold at auction. Fred’s parents had purchased the railroad right of way in 1937, so the elevator and the 1904 warehouse sat entirely on the Fax ranch.

Fred and George were the only bidders for the property; the elevator was theirs for $500.

George leased his farm to Paul and Dixie Schanno in 1977 and finally sold it to them in 1996. The property includes both the 1916 elevator and the side-hill elevator.

The Schannos used the main house for a couple of years for seed grain and cleaning wheat, but its 400-bph leg just can’t keep up with modern combines. The old elevator has been idle for the last five or six years.

Fred says the elevator is still usable. “You could crank it up today, and it would work just fine.” Paul and Dixie have no plans for using either elevator, nor do they have any plans to sell them or tear them down. They have donated a beam scale for an exhibit at the Oregon Wheat Commission in Portland, but the rest remains unchanged.

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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