Saturday, June 16, 2012

Silo City


My festival buddy and I went to Buffalo River Fest today and latched on to the walking tour of the area. We were a little late and missed the first part of the tour, but we saw that they were close and walked over and joined in. It was free, so don't worry that we horned in on the action on the cheap. And boy were we glad we did. We joined by the dock of the Edward M. Cotter fire boat (oldest working fireboat in the WORLD) and made our way over the bridge to the milling area by the Buffalo River and down Ganson Street.  This beauty of a milling building was built in the late 1800's. The present owner had tried to tear it down, but someone got it National Historic Landmark Status and now they can't. haha to them! 



 We then headed down to the Grain Elevators. Silo City it's called. Acres and acres of concrete monoliths, some of them still in use.
 We stopped at Elevator B Hive City. Read this article. It's amazing what they did to build this....

 Reach out and touch an elevator...
 Then they told us we were going to GO INSIDE THE BUILDING!!!! This was very very exciting!!!  Here we go!!!
 This is the top of one of the first chambers you walk into. The picture does  not begin to convey the height.
 Down a little farther were some shutes
 This went on and on and on
 view of another elevator from a window of the one we were in.
 Amazing to walk around this place. I'm pretty sure the guide said this one was built around 1906


 This is another elevator. The stored the grain for the Koch's Brewery here.


 The elevator in the background is still in use today.
We left a little sunburn, but Emily and I can cross one thing off our bucket list. Probably the coolest thing we've done all year. And we can't wait to go back.

1 comment:

Sue said...

Your grandfather worked for Standard Elevator as a weightman. The grain was used for Robin Hood flour. A rival of General Mills. In the early 50's or late 40's he was on a moving ladder, some one called him and he stuck his head out and got hammered. Lost a lot of his teeth.