Page 136 - Demo

134Going, going, goneEARLY ON, AS LYNN AND I were putting together a list of Indiana%u2019s historic grain elevators and feed mills, we realized it was already too late to photograph many of them. After all, when we were told about an old structure, it was often with the caveat, %u201cbut I don%u2019t know if it%u2019s still there.%u201d With so many places having been shut down and abandoned over the years, decay, vandalism, demolition, or fire, have taken their toll.So, it wasn%u2019t unusual for the two of us to drive into a town expecting to see an elevator or feed mill, only to find nothing standing. In some cases, the site appeared to have been leveled decades earlier. In other instances, the annihilation was much more recent, preceding us by only a matter of weeks or months. On several occasions, we only found the round, cracked concrete pads that once supported storage bins; on other occasions, just a gravel drive leading to a weedy lot adjacent to a former railroad track. Five times we arrived at dilapidated structures in the very process of being torn down. On one rural gravel road, we drove past an elevator site that was only a pile of charred timbers and beams%u2014it looked as if the fire had preceded us by only a few days.Of all the ways grain elevators and feed mills can vanish, none is quicker or more dramatic than a massive, all-consuming fire. Because the early buildings were mostly wood, and because grain dust is inherently explosive, fires have not been uncommon. We heard several times of a concrete structure built on the foundation of a wooden one that had burned down.Not surprisingly, when so much combustible material ignites, it results in a spectacular fire%u2014one likely to embed itself in the memory of anyone watching. At least, that%u2019s my personal experience. I witnessed such a fire late on a hot July night in 1971.Winchester, Randolph Co. (647.08)