In June 2022, Bruce Selyem photographed the Sitka, South Dakota, elevator in its 100th anniversary year. As if in honor of the occasion, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train passed by on the tracks that were laid by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad more than 120 years before.
In 1909, James G. Brady leased the siding from the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad and built an elevator at Sitka. Eight years later, in 1917, Brady sold his facility to the Farmer’s Selby Equity Exchange, a newly formed cooperative organized in Selby, South Dakota, in 1912.
On May 28, 1922, lightning struck the Sitka elevator, and it burned to the ground. The cooperative contracted with the T.E. Ibberson Co. of Minneapolis to build a new elevator at a cost of $10,905. The six-bin, 30,000-bushel annex was added in 1941.
For 72 years, from 1917 to 1989, the Selby cooperative owned an elevator at Sitka. In March 1989, the members agreed to sell the business to Harvest States Cooperative. Harvest States liquidated some of the assets and sold the Sitka elevator to Kevin and Mary Schilling of Schilling Farms Inc.
The Walworth County Record newspaper recorded some of the notable events of the Selby Equity years:
“In October 1909, George Witte, a carpenter working on the Brady elevator at Sitka, fell from a scaffold and sustained injuries from which he died later.”
“In December 1918, Wm. Fansler, age 42, manager of the elevator, died of double pneumonia following an attack of influenza. ... Mr. Fansler was replaced by a Mr. Richardson, and in 1919 Lloyd Engelbretson was hired as manager.”
“In August 1927, the elevator air compressor was going bad, which brought on a lot of scooping.” Without the air compressor, the truck lift wasn’t operable, and grain had to be shoveled into the pit.
“In March 1940, Bob Smith, in charge of the Sitka Elevator for the Selby Equity, was quite severely injured when he got his hand caught in the engine drive belt of the elevator power plant. He suffered a broken nose and a lacerated hand and was taken to a Mobridge hospital. ...”
The newspapers list the names of other managers, including Nils Carlson, Fred Miller, Richard Schnaible, Willie Ackerman, Ruben Goehring and Paul Miller.
Barbara Burnette Manke has one lighthearted memory not recorded in the Record.
“I rode with my dad in our international truck to haul wheat to the Sitka elevator. Going with him on the Sitka Road was always a fun trip, but then going anywhere was an adventure. He would stop along the road and let my sister and me pick bluebells and pasque flowers along the hillsides.”
Schilling Farms Inc.
Kevin Schilling had been a customer of the Selby Equity Exchange when the cooperative sold to Harvest States. He remembers purchasing the Sitka elevator for $2,000 or $3,000. He thought this was a good deal, and it proved to be an even better deal when he was able to sell the grain that Selby Equity had stored there.
A 1940 news article indicated that the elevator originally was powered by an engine, but when the Schillings bought the elevator, it had electricity, though Kevin said the wiring was old and poor. Electricity became available in Walworth County in the 1940s. Possibly, the elevator was electrified in 1941 when the annex was added.
Shannon and Phalen, two of the Schillings’ four children, helped run the elevator. They remember their dad dropping them off at the elevator in the mornings during harvest. They watched for the grain trucks, weighed each load and directed the grain to the proper bin. Shannon’s twin sister, Stacy, brought them lunch.
Were there any problems? Kevin recalls that after a big rain, water might have to be pumped out of the pit, which was too low. He also said, “Once in a while the kids,” referring to Shannon and Phalen, “would plug the leg by feeding too much grain too fast. All in all, the Sitka elevator was a good investment.”
In the 1970s, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad began abandoning South Dakota routes, and the state of South Dakota bought most of the discontinued lines. In 1982, it acquired the line through Sitka, too, and contracted with Burlington Northern to continue the operation of that line as well as the other lines it had purchased. Later, Burlington Northern bought the lines outright. The railroad wanted to load 10 to 26 cars at each rail siding. Kevin had hoped Burlington Northern would lengthen the Sitka sidetrack, but that never happened, and the Schillings never loaded to rail. Instead, they trucked grain to Red Wing, Minnesota.
In 1998, Kevin and Mary divorced. Mary retained the farm, and in 1999, Burlington Northern sold the property to Schilling Farms Inc. Ownership is currently listed to Mary M. Holgard, formerly Mary Schilling, president. Schilling Farms continued to use the elevator until about 2009 for farm storage: wheat, corn, sunflowers and beans. It has been idle and open to the elements since then. Some of the windows are broken. Scavengers, four-legged and two-legged, have ransacked the office and some of the equipment. The truck beam scale has been stolen. Some of the grates over the dump pit are bent, and others are missing. The floorboards are well-worn, warped, cracked and strewn with dirt, pieces of metal, broken glass and animal droppings. The surrounding grass is overgrown. No one lives in the only house still standing in Sitka. The Schilling siblings, Mary and Kevin’s children, now manage the farm, and they know the elevator is a liability and can be dangerous. They have been discussing its fate.
Barb and Bruce Selyem are directors of the Country Grain Elevator Historical Society. Contact the society at 406-581-1076; email: bselyem@cgehs.org.