Grainnet

Written by Barb Selyem. Photos by Bruce Selyem

Just south of the Canadian border at Northgate, ND, there are two weathered, wood crib elevators on the east side of the road.

Russell Miller Milling Co., whose Occident Flour logo still appears on many elevators in Montana and North Dakota, built the smaller one in 1914 after the Great Northern Railroad platted the town.

The larger elevator, built by the King Elevator Co., has been at Northgate almost as long.

For many people, the old elevators are familiar landmarks along the route to and from Canada. For some, they are simply aging curiosities with fading paint and rotting boards. Others don’t notice them at all.

For Bob Ganskop, the elevators are part of a landscape he has known all his life.

“My Dad bought our farm in 1934, the same year I was born,” he says. “I never remember a time when the elevators were not there. When I was about five or six, Russell Miller purchased the King Elevator and moved it about three city blocks from its original site to the north side of their existing elevator.

“On the day of the move, I went with my Dad to watch. The elevator was jacked up and put on Caterpillar tracks—there were no rubber tires at that time. Then, two Caterpillars began pulling. Before long, it was obvious they needed more horse power, so two farm tractors came to help with the tow.”

Bob continues, “I’m not too good at remembering things, but for a 6-year-old, the move was pretty im-pressive.”

Changing Hands
In 1953, the Peavey Company purchased Russell Miller Milling including its 140 country elevators, terminals, and flour mills.

Peavey sold some of the locations right away but ran the two Northgate elevators for 27 years, before selling to Bob; his brother, Arthur; and their friend, Larry Olney, in 1980.

Bob remem-bers: “We did not want to see our local eleva-tors close. We bought and sold grain and other things like dog food. We also cleaned grain. It was great fun. Our farms were smaller then, and we had more time.

“Eventually, we were forced to quit loading to rail, when the Burlington Northern (BN) began giving priority rates for loading 27-car unit trains. We didn’t have enough siding to spot that many cars, nor were we handling enough grain to load them.”

Uncertain Future
When Arthur died in 1986, Larry wasn’t interested in the elevator business any more and simply bowed out. For a while, Bob stored his own grain in the elevators and continued to clean grain for his neighbors.

After a time, the elevators began to deter-iorate, and repairs and basic maintenance became unaffordable. Bob hasn’t used the elevators since the early 1990s.

“When the new 100-car General Mills siding was laid just south of us, the BN raised our lease on the property from $600 to $900 per year,” Bob says. “It actually doubled the lease to $1,200, but we were able to nego-tiate for a better rate. If we refuse to pay, the BN will tear down the elevators and send us the bill. Our only options are to keep paying, move the elevators off railroad property, or demolish them. We certainly can’t move them.”

The future of the elevators presents a real dilemma for Bob. “The buildings are landmarks here, so I really hate to tear them down or burn them,” he says. “I’ve been told that some of the wood may be valuable—like the huge beams over the work floor and the bucket elevator wood that has been sculpted by years of flowing grain.

“Originally, both elevators had gas engines since there was no electricity in Northgate in the early years. I’m not sure what happened to those old engines. Unfortunately, they were probably sold, when electric motors were installed.

“We’d like to sell the cleaner and have already disconnected it. There are also a couple of beam scales inside that might be worth something.” Then smiling, he laughs and says, “Maybe I can sell the whole thing on E-Bay®.”

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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