Grainnet

Written by Barb Selyem. Photos by Bruce Selyem

There is an old, boarded-up grain elevator on a curve of U.S. Highway 12 in Corson County, SD. It used to be part of the town of Walker, but the township was dissolved about 25 years ago; the school was moved; and there are no longer any businesses.

Only a couple of families still live in Walker, so few people stop. Trains pass four or five times a day, cars speed by, pheasants cross the road, and pigeons come to roost in the elevator’s headhouse. Occasionally, a photographer on his way to somewhere else will stop for photos, when the light is right from season to season.

One of Two Elevators
There used to be two elevators in Walker. The Western Lumber and Grain Company built the one that is still standing in 1928. When it was built, there was nothing particularly unusual about the structure. It was a cribbed elevator that held about 25,000 bushels of grain. A separate shed housed the gas engine that powered the line shaft to the wood leg. A manual manlift provided access to the headhouse.

Eventually, the gas engine was replaced by electric motors, and now, both the engine and the motors are gone. The manlift rope has been broken for a long time, and the belt and buckets were removed from the leg. The elevator has been idled for about 20 years.

In 1936, drought forced Western Lumber to close the Walker elevator, and it remained closed for the next six years. When the company decided to reopen in 1942, it offered the manager’s position to Sam Knaudt whose family had homesteaded near Walker. Sam had just graduated and had been called into the service. By accepting the manager’s job, he was given a deferment, as working in an elevator was considered as being part of the “food chain” during World War II.

Sam was still the manager in 1947, when McIntosh Equity bought the business, and he continued to work for the cooperative for another year. After he left and for the next 40 years, the elevator was used only during harvest.

Five Generations of Knaudts
Five generations of the Knaudt family have hauled grain to the Walker elevator. Ted Knaudt, the fourth generation, and his daughter Roxie, the fifth, still live nearby. Ted, who is 47, has many fond memories of the old elevator and has a real knack for spinning a tale.

“I started helping on the farm when I was about four, and I remember going to the elevator with my dad and grandpa,” he says.

“One time, when Luke Utter was the manager, my dad and I went to the elevator but couldn’t find Luke. We waited for about 30 minutes, before we heard someone making noises. We walked around and hollered, ‘Luke, where are you?’ As it happened, Luke had gone down into the pit and had gotten his foot stuck, and there we were visiting in the office above, oblivious to his dilemma.”

Ted remembers another manager that had conned his girlfriend into helping him cooper the boxcars. The couple boarded up the door on one and realized they had forgotten the ladder to climb out, so they said. Ted grins while commenting, “Imagine the rumors!”

“The elevator was always an attraction for dogs and kids,” says Ted. “We had an old black lab that loved to chase skunks and could go up and down stairs. One time, he chased a skunk down into the pit and got tangled up in some wire. Dad and I looked for him for a couple of days. When we found him, Dad climbed down into the pit despite the stink and freed the dog through the door of the line shaft tunnel.”

Manlift Mishap
Even after the elevator was closed, kids liked hanging around it. About 12 years ago, Roxie and three or four friends rode the manlift to the headhouse. On the way down, the rope broke. No one was seriously hurt, but Roxie sprained her ankle.

“After that, the cooperative boarded things up pretty tight,” Ted says.

He continues, “I would love to own the old elevator. A few years ago, McIntosh Equity offered to sell it to me for $1, and they would give me the $1 to buy it. It would have been fun to convert it into a feed store.

“Burlington Northern (Santa Fe/BNSF) would not sell the property and wanted a $1,000-per-year lease that stipulated I had to carry $1 million in insurance. The cooperative had removed the motors and leg belt and the four steel bins that provided additional storage. It just didn’t seem like a good idea.”

For the time being, Tim Leins, the manager at McIntosh, says the cooperative has no plans of doing anything with the Walker elevator. In fact, during a phone interview, Tim remarked, “We just haven’t talked about it. I’ve probably thought more about it during this conversation than I have in several years.”

Ted, however, has not forgotten. “I see it every day, and I’d still like to own it.”

He smiles and says, “Some day, I’ll have the railroad over a barrel. BNSF will want something from me and will be a little more willing to make a deal for the property.”

Note: The photos accompanying this article were taken by grain elevator photographer Bruce Selyem who often travels U.S. Highway 12 going and coming from his home in Bozeman, MT. When the light is good, regardless of the season, Selyem has a hard time passing by a beautiful elevator setting.

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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