Old Time Elevator: Founded in 1898, Minnesota Coop Thriving

Striking sunset glow highlights the headquarters elevator of Elbow Lake Cooperative Grain Elevator Co. in Elbow Lake, MN, caught on a late afternoon during a photo shoot in February, 1999. Photos by Bruce Selyem.

From the September/October GRAIN JOURNAL

By BARBARA KRUPP-SELYEM

Sixteen million bushels – that’s the amount of grain Al Mashek, long time manager of the Elbow Lake Cooperative Grain Co., estimates that the cooperative will handle in 2019 – 271 times the 59,000 bushels of wheat and flax that Elbow Lake Grain Company handled in 1900.

The farmers elevator movement began in Minnesota around 1890 in response to growing dissatisfaction with prices, weights, grades, and treatment by the privately owned line elevators and railroad companies. For exactly those reasons, the shareholders of the Elbow Lake Farmers Elevator met in 1898 and voted unanimously to build a 30,000-bushel crib elevator, the Elbow Lake Grain Co. It was completed in 1900, and from then until 1944, under the leadership of only five managers, it evolved from horsepower to gas engine and from gas engine to electricity.

To qualify for services set by the Cooperative Marketing and the Farm Credit Acts of 1933, the farmers changed the bylaws in 1934 to form Elbow Lake Cooperative Grain Co. Eighty-five years later, the cooperative continues to thrive due to good management and responsible growth.

In 1944, the cooperative hired Edgar Beyer as manager, a position he held for nearly 34 years. Beyer oversaw many physical changes to the facility. Four years after he started, the cooperative contracted with Arnold Volden Construction Co. to tear down the original 30,000-bushel elevator and to build a new 45,000-bushel crib house. (It was the first elevator that Volden built, and it cost only $60,000.) Two crib annexes, 100,000 and 110,000 bushels each, were added on the east side in the 1950s.

During Don Carl’s tenure as manager (1978-87), the coop added three steel bins and a new dryer system east of the annexes. In 1986, it acquired a 40,000-bushel crib elevator on the west side of Main Street, an elevator with a history of its own. Its faded signage for OM (Osborne McMillan Elevator Co.), Hubbard Seeds, and Jim Farmwell Feed, helped identify its heritage. It was built about 1926 for OM and was sold in 1969 to Verner Olson, who changed the name to Elbow Lake Agri Market. Earl Davison bought the facility in 1977 and operated it as West Central Grain Inc., until he sold it to Elbow Lake Cooperative.

Exponential Growth

In 1987, after managing elevators at Mantador, ND (one year) and Wolverton, MN (12-1/2 years), Al Mashek came to Elbow Lake as the general manager. During his tenure, the cooperative has grown exponentially.

Revamped and updated in 1993, the 1948 crib elevator still is used today, as are the two crib annexes. At the same time, the driveway and office were updated and three steel bins (70,000, 90,000, and 120,000 bushels each) were erected. (The cooperative hired Volden Construction again, but this time Gene Volden, Arnold’s son, did the work.) The last two 120,000-bushel steel bins on the west end of the row east of Main Street were added in 1996.

Still, the cooperative needed more storage, so it looked to the area on the west side of Main Street. The 1926 OM elevator had to come down to make room. The cooperative tore it down in the spring of 1999 (just a few months after Bruce Selyem took his February sunset photo facing west from the railroad tracks.)

Then, one after another, the cooperative erected steel bins:

• Two 220,000-bushel bins (2000).

• One 370,000-bushel bin (2003).

• One 700,000-bushel bin (2006).

• One 700,000-bushel bin (2007).

• One 700,000-bushel bin (2012).

• Two 700,000-bushel bins (2018). In 2012, a second 700,000-bushel bin and a new dryer were built slightly northeast of the annexes on the east side of Main.

Condominium Storage

In 2000, Elbow Lake Cooperative Grain faced problems with long lines of trucks waiting to dump during harvest. Coop members requested “condominium storage.” This program would allow farmers to lease storage space owned by the cooperative – a cheaper alternative for them than adding on-farm bins. Hence, the cooperative added the two 220,000-bushel bins with a new enclosed receiving pit. In the September/October 2001 issue of Grain Journal, Mashek noted, “the length of truck lines has been cut in half.”

The September/October 2002 issue of Grain Journal elaborated on the condominium storage program, which had become increasingly popular in the Upper Midwest and Western Canada. Mashek described how the program worked: “We sold space in 5,000-bushel increments ... 23 producers took part.” He continues, “The farmers purchased space for 20 years at a rate of $1.32 per bushel. That space is transferable, so it can remain in the farm family ... the end of the 20-year period, the cooperative management will meet with the participating producers and decide whether to sell the space or to continue to lease it.”

The program was so popular that the cooperative added the 370,000-bushel bin in 2003. Through the years after 2003, as farmers could afford more on-farm storage, participation in the program declined and currently is in the process of being discontinued.

Looking Back

Today, Elbow Lake Cooperative Grain has 5,914,000 bushels of storage – 197 times the 30,000 bushels of storage in the 1900 crib elevator. In 1900, it could load a few Manitoba & Pacific Railway cars; in 2019 it can load 100-car Canadian Pacific Railroad unit trains.

Mashek grew up on a farm, and after 46 years managing grain elevators, he is facing a difficult decision as he considers retirement. “There has never been enough time in my day during my 32 years with Elbow Lake Cooperative. I really enjoy the people, and I like the challenges of my job.”

Yes, there certainly have been challenges in the form of upgrades, demolitions, an experimental condo program, and continual growth. Mashek says, “Agriculture is an ever-changing business, and you have to change with it.”