Page 20 - Demo

18ONCE I PUT THE WORD OUT that I was looking for old grain elevators and feed mills to photograph, I started getting phone calls from all over Indiana. One fellow, who didn%u2019t give his name, told me I should definitely give Burt Etchison a call over at Stewart Grain in Warren County. Because I didn%u2019t yet have any leads in that part of the state, I eagerly dialed Burt%u2019s number. Happily, he was very interested in my quest and quickly rattled off the locations of 10 such structures in his general area. Burt went on to say that, while his family owned several elevators, he worked at %u201cthe nicest one%u201d%u2014the operation in Stewart. A few days later, on a Sunday, Lynn and I headed out, first shooting in Montgomery and Fountain Counties, then angling over to the small community of Marshfield in Warren County%u2014one of Burt%u2019s recommendations we were looking forward to checking out. As we approached, we could see a proud old elevator standing a bit apart from some newer structures. Lynn said there must be a woman around when she saw the neatly kept yard, immaculately trimmed grass, and colorful flowers in front of the office. Because it was the middle of harvesting season, the elevator was open on this October Sunday, so I went inside to ask permission to look around and do some shooting. The two women running the place, Janet Hensley and Candy Hunter, readily agreed.After getting shots from several angles, I headed back to the car to discover one of the women talking with Lynn. She wanted us to know about some old photos on the walls of the office. Following her inside, I found the fading images especially intriguing%u2014particularly the ones showing an old elevator being moved. It seems that, several decades ago, it was dragged, in its entirety, to this very spot. Sadly, that particular elevator burned down some years after the move, and the present one, which I%u2019d just photographed, had been erected in its place.Third-generation elevator manStewart, Warren Co. (612.09)