Pretty Prairie, KS: Former Security Branch Elevator with bolted steel construction

(Satellite)

Bob Summers posted
Another pre WWII affordable fireproof alternative to wood elevators was bolted steel. The former Security Elevator branch in Pretty Prairie Kansas was on a branch line of the Santa Fe (we affectionately referred to as the "South Hutchinson to Indian Territory") which has been abandoned for many years.
Dennis DeBruler Thanks for including the name of the railroad that used to service the elevators in your descriptions. I see this is now a storage part Pretty Prairie Coop.
Judging from the satellite images, they have a feed mill a couple of blocks north and a slip-form storage elevator in the next block north.

The farmers should have decent cell phone coverage in the fields because the headhouse makes a great cell phone antennae tower.

Using Street View, I could not find a decent sized grain dryer in this town.
Bob Summers We do not use grain driers for wheat, so will only find driers where handle significant quantity of corn or grain sorghum. What you see in the satellite image is a warehouse for bagged feed and/or lubrication products. No feedmill at this location, which is a branch location headquartered in Garden Plain Kansas.
Dennis DeBruler Bob Summers I was thinking it was a feedmill because of all of the small bins. But when I view it with Street View, I see the "bins" are tanks.

It is interesting to learn the differences between Plain States and the Midwest elevators.

I was not aware that wheat did not need drying. Wheat is no longer raised in the Midwest.

In the Midwest, it is common for a small town to have a feedmill, but no storage service. Stroh is a good example:
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

Bob Summers In this region most of the co-ops were just one or two locations prior to the trend toward mergers picked up momentum in the '70's. Most had feedmills, at least at their main location. Now the typical multi location co-op will have one large feedmill serving all of their locations. Here in winter wheat country we harvest in early summer and the grain dries naturally before it is harvested. Our fall harvested crops may require drying unless it goes to the large commercial feedlots. They accept a higher moisture content grain that they can put in large "trench silos" and put into their feed rations throughout the season.

Rusty Rex Great shot Bob. A lot of these in our area are getting torn down by a scrap dealer. This one in Pretty Prairie looked almost identical to the Ramona, KS one that was recently razed.
Bob Summers I think this elevator and the one in Kingman that has been repurposed into a ready mix plant are identical. We (Security) acquired it from Collingwood Grain "back in the day" because they had acquired it in a package and Mrs. Collingwood thought they should have a competitor in the communities they had facilities. A different mindset from what one finds nowadays!

Street View

Bob Summers posted
Current view [5/26/19] of nearly 50 year old photo of this elevator I posted last week.