Duluth, MN: Lost/(Occident and Peavey) Grain Elevators on Rice's Point

(Satellite, the elevators were between the two slips with Occident on the north side)

Some rather significant grain elevators have been torn down in the Two Ports. These two elevators used to be on Rice's Point. They were torn down in 1998. The title should have been:

     Lost/Cargill C/Peavy/Occident/Russell Miller Milling and 

     Lost/Cargill D/Peavy Grain Elevators on Rice's Point.

But that was getting too long. Cargill replaced these elevators with a new one.

The elevator in the foreground was Peavy. The elevator on the other side of the dock and at the next slip was Occident. The next elevator is Duluth Lake Port Storage/Capital.

David Schauer posted
A view made in 1976 of the Duluth port terminal with a number of ocean vessels in the frame plus a silver stacker at Hyman Michaels (Azcon) waiting to be scrapped. Basgen Photography

"F.H. Peavey & Company was established at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1874 by Frank H. Peavey. Minneapolis became headquarters of the firm in 1884. The name of the business was changed to Peavey Company in 1962. The firm went public in 1973 and , in 1982, was acquired by ConAgra, Inc." [mnhs]

HAER MN-97-A
2. Peavey Duluth Terminal Elevator, 1908 Duluth main workhouse, ceramic tile and brick dryer building between workhouse and annex, south wall shipping side. - Peavey Duluth Terminal Elevator, Workhouse, South side of first slip, north from outer end of Rice's Point, east of Garfield Avenue, Duluth, St. Louis County, MN Photos from Survey HAER MN-97-A

The Occident and Peavey elevators are in the center of this photo. At first, David's comment indicating that the left (north) elevator was Peavey confused me until I learned that Peavey bought Occident. That would explain the connection that was added between the two elevators.

David Schauer posted
Here is a 1978 image of Rices Point. This one shows a Soo Line Geep switching the Peavey elevator complex and an EMD end-cab switcher by the yard office. The bottom has the C&NW/Omaha, GN and NP yards with the Soo yard off to the right center. There appears to be lots of Milwaukee Road equipment for scrap. 11/21/1978 Basgen Photography
Jody Aho: It also looks like the scorched, burned-out remains of the Harry L. Allen being scrapped at Hyman-Michaels. For the non-Boatnerd railfans, the 545-foot steamer Harry L. Allen burned alongside the former Capitol #4 elevator in Duluth (just outside the view of this photo) in a spectacular fire on January 21-22, 1978.
Barry Klinetobe: I read the the hull of Harry Allen was red hot.
Eric Holst: Would be interesting to find out when Occident/Cargill C and Peavey/Cargill D loaded their final ships.
Jody Aho: I think D was in 1977, C a few years after that. If anyone else can get more specific or remembers what boats, please add.
Eric Holst: Thanks, Jody! It's a detail I'm not sure I've ever seen discussed. Elevator D indeed looks quiet in this particular photo.
Tim Pranke: Interesting to see Occident and Peavey had a connection.
David Schauer: Tim Pranke I wonder if that was added after 1960 when Peavey bought that elevator?
Tim Pranke: That would make sense. It's not on the 1955 Sanborn maps.
Kent Rengo: Man, look at all those 40 foot boxcars!

Dennis DeBruler commented on David's post

I found that those elevators are not only abandoned, they are gone!

https://www.google.com/.../@46.7602655,-92.../data=!3m1!1e3

David commented on Jody's comment
Note new concrete silos are well under construction to make up for the lost storage.
[David is commenting on the silos in the right foreground of the Duluth Lake Port Storage/Capital elevator.]

 

Association for Great Lakes Maritime History posted

The freighter Frank W. Hart arriving in Duluth, Minn. covered in ice, circa 1923-1929 (Image Source: University of Wisconsin Madison Libraries Digital Collection – The Great Lakes Maritime History Project). The notes for the image do not include the date or location.

The photograph is part of the Kenneth E. Thro Collection of the Jim Dan Hill Library at the University of Wisconsin Superior. The photographer was Hugh McKenzie (1879-1957) so the image may have been taken in Duluth, Minn. Based on the vessel’s history, it is circa 1901-1929.

According to two sources, the location is the Northwestern Coal Dock No. 4, across from the Occident Elevator. The head house and east silos of the elevator (as shown) were built in 1923. The west silos (absent) were built in 1930. That dates the image to circa 1923-1929.

Image Information Sources:

Kent Rengo and Tim Pranke

[The description continues with a history of the freighter.]

The seven interior shots of the Peavey Duluth Terminal Elevator from HAER. All of these are 1908 photos in the main workhouse.

1
Scale floor, looking up to machine floor at drive shaft. Note ceramic tile ceiling.

2
Scale floor detail of rope pulley system-south wall looking east.

3
Fairbanks scale

4
Spout floor-mayo spouts [distribution floor] looking roughly west to east

5
Spout floor-grain dryer on north wall

6
Spout floor with mayo distribution spouts from northeast corner

7
Scale floor, looking east from middle of south wall

AllPosters, that site allows ordering prints of this art
[This indicates that the concrete silos next to the original Peavey elevator were built before the concrete silos along the slip.]

Four photos from: Occident Terminal Elevator & Storage Annex, South side of second slip, north from outer end of Rice's Point, east of Garfield Avenue, Duluth, St. Louis County, MN Photos from Survey HAER MN-96.

1
Occident Terminal Elevator and annex, (l)-1930/workhouse and annex 1925 with train shed Peavey Duluth Terminal Annex on left 1930-workhouse 1908 (white silos). - Occident Terminal Elevator & Storage Annex, South side of second slip, north from outer end of Rice's Point, east of Garfield Avenue, Duluth, St. Louis County, MN Photos from Survey HAER MN-96
[I do not understand the HAER caption. My understanding is Occident is the second elevator. The one on the right is Peavy.]

2
Occident Terminal Elevator, annex on left built 1930, workhouse, train shed and annex on right built 1925. Occident Elevator Co., Division of Russell-Miller Milling Co., N.D. - Occident Terminal Elevator & Storage Annex, South side of second slip, north from outer end of Rice's Point, east of Garfield Avenue, Duluth, St. Louis County, MN Photos from Survey HAER MN-96

3
Occident Terminal Elevator. Reinforced concrete. First total "electric" elevator at Duluth. (Powered by electrical substation instead of steam generator). - Occident Terminal Elevator & Storage Annex, South side of second slip, north from outer end of Rice's Point, east of Garfield Avenue, Duluth, St. Louis County, MN Photos from Survey HAER MN-96

4
Occident Terminal Elevator 1925 [Russell Miller Milling Co.] Taken from east side, looking northwest. - Occident Terminal Elevator & Storage Annex, South side of second slip, north from outer end of Rice's Point, east of Garfield Avenue, Duluth, St. Louis County, MN Photos from Survey HAER MN-96

And here is a view of the side by the slip.

LC-USF34- 063617-D [P&P] LOT 1130
Grain boat loading at Occident elevator. Duluth, Minnesota

Yetter, IA: Broken Concrete Silo and the CN/IC Route West of Chicago

(Satellite)

Normally, I would simply add a photo of a broken grain silo to my concrete vs. steel notes. But looking this town up on the map taught me more about the Illinois Central Railroad. 

Fort Dodge News- Alpha Media posted, cropped

(Alpha Media- Duane Murley/Brooke Bickford)

No one was hurt and structural failure is to blame according to a release from Landus.

This resulted in damage to a concrete grain silo at the facility in Yetter, Iowa this morning. 

As a result of the structural failure to the northwest-facing bin at the Yetter grain elevator, a large portion of the concrete wall fell to the ground while a train was being loaded on site around 4:30 am. No one was injured. There was no fire risk, and no one was hurt.

Crews are on-site now working to clean up fallen debris and anticipate all railway blockages to be cleared by evening.

Bob AmateurArcher Brown: Looks like they left a bunch of rebar out when they poured it !
Dan Wallace: Happens mostly to northward facing silos. When the rebar is exposed due to deterioration of concrete and the freeze/thaw and lack of sunlight to get rid of the moisture it’s rots the rebar just like a car. When you start moving the grain, it puts a lot of stress on the the weak spots and you can get a blow out. Glad no one was hurt.
Ray McCollough shared

A "before" image shows that this is not a small rural elevator.

Street View

In fact, it also uses a long building and a ground pile for storage.

Satellite

As the grain elevator grew, it appears the town shrunk.

Satellite

When I learned that the railroad was CN/IC, I researched how the IC got here. I knew the original charter for the IC was to build up the middle of the state and then West from Freeport to Galena because at that time Galena was considered more important than Chicago because it was a river town and it had lead mines. But Chicago was on the rise so a branch was added to the charter to go to Chicago. Later, IC built a line that connected Chicago to Freeport. Every map I found that shows the Chicago-Freeport route also shows the routes in Iowa, and vice-versa. I also knew that IC owned the bridge that crossed the Mississippi River at Dubuque, IA. That bridge was also used by CB&Q and CGW. But I forgot where the IC went in Iowa.

Dennis DeBruler

Looking at a contemporary map of CN, we are reminded that the ICG abandoned the charter route up the middle of  Illinois. This CN map shows that Yetter was on a route that went down to Council Bluffs and thus the UP in Omaha. The IC also went to Sioux City. I used their capacity map because the weight limit of a route is a good indicator of the perceived importance of that route. We can see that the Iowa routes support the maximum weight of 286k pounds (green). (Purple is 268k and blue is 263k.)

CN

It is nice to see that at least some Class I railroads are still willing to support grain elevators that have just a siding as opposed to a small yard or, better yet, a loop track. Then I noticed that this town seems to have a long siding for CN train meets when I found a local train parked on the siding.

Satellite

And the Landus Cooperative has its own locomotive so that the only thing CN has to do is drop off and pick up a cut of hopper cars. It is interesting that the ballast for the sidings is more fresh than that for the mainline.

Satellite

Monroe, MI: 1974 3.3gw DTE Monroe Power Plant and 800+mw Units

(Satellite)

The motivation for these notes are the photos of 800+mw units.

• Plant Nameplate Capacity: 3,279.6 MW (Megawatts)
• Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 817.2 MW (1971), Unit 2: 822.6 MW (1973), Unit 3: 822.6 MW (1973), Unit 4: 817.2 MW (1974)

[gem]

Greg Mallory posted
John Luhn: How does the steam flow work on that? I'm seeing guard valves and throttles on each side in the foreground, but not making much sense from there. I'm used to marine plants where the throttle assembly is right on top of the nozzle block of the turbine.
Austin Myers: John Luhn these are pretty complex steamers. If this plant is the same as Monroe Power Plant, the HP exhausts to reheaters in the boiler. From there hot reheat is directed back to the IP turbine, then exhausted to the two LPs via the large crossovers you see. The 4 lines arched above the HP is the throttle outlets to HP inlets. If they are rated the same as Monroe, it's 3600 psig at 1000 deg F on main steam to HP, and 700 psig at 1000 deg F hot reheat to IP.
[HP would be high pressure, IP is intermediate pressure and LP is low pressure. The HP and IP turbines are dual flow and there are two LP turbines. The first two pipes in the foreground feed steam to the HP flow towards us and the next two feed the HP flow away from us. There are four corresponding pipes below so that all eight quadrants of the HP are fed steam. The last two smaller pipes feed the IP. The first big pipe is the crossover from the exhaust of the IP flow towards us to the first LP turbine. The second crossover takes the exhaust from the IP flow away from us to the second LP turbine.
There are several comments discussing valves and GE vs. Westinghouse, but they are over my head.]

Brennen Williams commented on Greg's post
Looks like U2 and U3 at Monroe.
Dennis DeBruler

So this is what 822.6mw looks like. Is this the largest that was ever made?

https://www.gem.wiki/Monroe_Power_Plant

I did the conversion, 800mw is over a million horsepower. How thick is the shaft?

Greg Mallory

Author

Dennis DeBruler not the largest by any means. I have a few 900’s around me and there are 1000+

dtevantage

Most of the land on which the power plant is built is landfill.

Third photo posted by Marine Historical Society of Detroit via Dennis DeBruler
"What the Port of Monroe looked like from above about a year earlier, on April 27, 1951. No vessels in view. Cropped U.S. Geological Survey aerial photo downloaded from their Earth Explorer website."

1 of 10 photos posted by Andrew Dean Detroit. He took it from the Herbert C. Jackson.
Standing above the unloading arm as we arrive in Monroe off Lake Erie.

Brennen Williams posted
Taken a few years back at Monroe Power Plant. I want to say this was 2018.

David Schauer posted
The Paul R. Tregurtha loading coal at MERC in Superior - the terminal's first shipment of the season. This is welcome news for the miners in the Powder River Basin, employees at BNSF and MERC, plus the fine folks at Interlake. Big Paul is loading for DTE's St. Clair and Monroe, Michigan generating stations. I had Gus grab a shot out the van window as we crossed the Blatnik Bridge today. 5/27/2020

 

David Schauer posted
A beautiful calm Friday evening finds ASC's Walter J. McCarthy Jr. departing Duluth with 68,000 tons of coal for St. Clair and Monroe (DTE).

 

Justin Wilson posted, cropped
Detroit Edison Monroe Plant. Monroe Michigan. Unit 1. Back when I did a job there in 2016.

 

Andrew Dean Detroit posted

MonroeNews ("limited articles")
[I see that they got rid of the last of the old smokestacks.]
"DTE Energy has invested more than $2.3 billion at the Monroe plant to limit emissions, he said, adding that has helped reduce nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions."
[And since it was built in the 1970s, it was probably built with particulate control. [gem]]

I hate to see organizations such as Find Energy whining about coal use based on incompetence. I quote the MonroeNews article:

“Most of this lack of efficiency is the result of (the plants’) choice of fuel types, such as coal and other fossil fuels,” the organization wrote in its article. “The advanced age of these plants is another contributing factor, as they sometimes don’t take advantage of modern-day energy efficient equipment and methods.”

If they had looked at the gem report, they would have seen that it is one of the more modern power plants using supercritical technology; they installed wet blue gas desulphurization, which Find Energy could have guessed if they had just looked at the smokestacks; and they installed selective catalytic reduction. I have not been able to determine if their ash pond is lined. Or by "modern-day energy efficient equipment and methods" do they mean wind and solar? It is one thing to close a 1921 300mw plant, it is another to take a pollution controlled 3,300mw plant offline. "The company is investing in cleaner energy, such as wind and solar parks and a natural gas plant, while also accelerating its coal plant retirements, he added. The River Rouge Power Plant, which used coal, was retired by the company last year [2021]. St. Clair and Trenton Channel coal power plants will be retired later this year [2022]. The Belle River Power Plant will cease burning coal by 2028. The Monroe plant, which is currently DTE Energy’s largest generator of power and accounts for about 40% of its electric generation, is set to be retired by 2040." [MonroeNews]

MonroeNews also mentions: "In 2020, the plant on average generated about 13.2 million megawatts per hour." I wonder what the source of that statement was because the unit "megawatts per hour" is nonsense. I presume the statement should be: "In 2020, the plant generated 13.2 million megawatt-hours." Power-Technology provides a figure of 14,046,398MWh. Since there are 8,760 hours in a year, 100% utilization of a 3.3gw plant is 28,908,000MWh. So they are using almost 50% of the plant's capacity. That strikes me as high since electric consumption goes way down at night. Obviously, this is a baseload plant and they shutdown other plants when the consumption goes down. This web page also indicated that Units 2 & 3 were supplied by Siemens instead of Westinghouse. Units 1 & 4 were supplied by GE Power.

Again this week, I have learned that Powder River Basin (PRB) coal is tricky to burn. (The first time was the Clifty Creek Power Plant.) They blend in Central Appalachian coal so that they are burning just 60-70% PRB. And they use southern PRB because "consuming northern PRB coals resulted in unacceptable problems." I didn't read the rest of the article because it is way over my head. [ScienceDirect] The PRB coal is shipped from the Twin Ports (Superior, WI and Duluth, MN) using lakers.

I saw a headline about Monroe being a super polluter on this page for about a second until it got replaced by nothing but ads and click bait. But the Google search results extracted the information: "Sep 29, 2016 — DTE's Monroe plant released more toxic arsenic into Lake Erie — 1,800 pounds, nearly a ton — than any other coal-fired power plant in the nation ..." (In what time period?) And MichiganRadio reports other organizations screaming that Monroe is a super polluter. A big plant is going to rank near the top of lists as long as they use absolute numbers. They need to rank plants using pollutant/watt-hour.

William M Bass posted four photos with the comment: "A little periodic outage porn."

William M Bass: Monroe Power Plant.

Justin Fountain: There are 4 units at this plants one is down for the yearly outage and 2 others are currently on economic reserve only 1 unit .running right now

Gary Braveman: Justin Fountain amazing. I remember when all 4 units ran almost always.

Justin Fountain: Gary Braveman yea me as well unless there was a tube luke or they brought it down for repair they always ran all 4

Bobby Williams: 340 FT LONG CLIMB.. [Up the scaffolding in the boiler?]

[The old stack was 800'.]

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Johnstown, PA: 1878 Gautier/Bethlehem/Gautier Steel Rolling Mill

(Satellite)

Johnstown had several steel mills. As I come across details of what was where, I'm writing notes for each mill.

The Cambria Iron Company was founded in Johnstown in 1852. The Gautier Works was constructed in 1878 "to produce manufactured rods, parts for agricultural implements and wire drawing." After the 1889 Johnstown Flood destroyed this facility, the Wire Works was built in 1911. [wikimapia] And this was rebuilt as rolling mills.

Gautier Steel now owns and operates some of the rolling mills. [comment on a photo] The link is to a page of photos and some of the equipment are real antiques like the Allis-Chalmers electric motors.

"Cambra Iron Company was bought by Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1923 and underwent major modernization within next two years." [Gautier Steel]

Don Cassata posted
An early 60's view of the Gautier Div. Johnstown Plant Bethlehem Steel.
[In the background is Bethlehem Franklin Works.]

 

Jessica Van Giana posted
Looks like an early 50's pic of the Gautier Div. Johnstown Plant. The PRR Freight Station is also shown. When Johnstown boomed with all the other steel towns that now went bust.

AltoonaWorks posted
6/2022 - A portion of the former Bethlehem Steel works takes up much of the area near downtown Johnstown still to this day. Gautier Steel operates out of these buildings. The track curving at the bottom edge of the photo is CSX's S&C Sub to Rockwood, PA.
www.AltoonaWorks.info
James Torgeson shared

Don Cassata posted
A 1990 view of a few Gautier mills. Johnstown Plant. Bethlehem Steel.

 

Aaron M. Vedock posted
Johnstown, PA - photo taken in December 2019
Viktor Mácha: And some pictures from the inside:
https://www.viktormacha.com/galerie/gautier-steel-johnstown-305/

Don Cassata posted
One of Johnstown Plant's Gautier Mills in 1950. Bethlehem Steel.
John Mc Millen: Been there and done that, good old days at Inland Steel 1963 # 1 Blooming Mill and 14 “ billet!

Don Cassata posted
1980's view of the 12" Mill in Gautier Johnstown Plant Bethlehem Steel. I worked this Mill in the late 70's.
Sean Rohrer: I did that from 2010 to 2021 before they scrapped that mill.
[That looks like an antique control panel in the background of the middle of the photo.]

 

Kevin Weaver posted
Gautier steel Johnstown pa 14 inch .mill only one left here which used to be Bethlehem steel early 1900s flowing my family tradition pap worked here and others now do and I love it.
Bob Tomlin: Cut my teeth on a 14" mill , 12 stands , fiber bearings , 2 repeaters with 4 1/2" billets.
I can still smell those burning bearings.
Elmer Bird Jr.: I remember those days! Looks much like the 12 and 18 inch mill in Bethlehem
Joe DiPietro: Years ago I help update the controls on that walking beam furnace. Glad to see it’s still going. I heard they scrapped the small line.
Kevin Weaver: Joe DiPietro only mill left is the 14 inch everything else scrapped.

It is nice to see an industrial facility where all of the buildings are still intact and being maintained.

Street View

It was founded in 1852 by Josiah H. Gautier and became part of Cambria Iron Co. in 1881, which became part of Bethlehem in 1923. After a second devastating flood in 1977 (the first being the infamous 1889 Johnstown Flood), Bethlehem shutdown most of their operations. But some bar mills survive as Gautier Steel. In fact, they installed a new plate rolling mill in 2015. [ViktorMacha, the photos include examples of old control panels]

Two big Allis-Chalmers mill motors

This photo shows that an operator still loops a bar from one roller to another like I have seen in third-world countries. But I don't exactly understand what is happening. This is an example of a video being worth a 1000 photos.

Don Cassata posted

Frank Cintula Jr. commented on Don's post

Frank Cintula Jr. commented on Don's post
Visiting back home APRIL ‘21

These are the western buildings, and they seem to be used by another company. But Frank's building photo above indicates that Gautier puts their sign on them.

Street View

Ten of the photos posted by Chris Davidson with the comment:

Finally got this roll back from the lab. Johnstown, PA, on Memorial Day Saturday, shooting with a 1956 Argus C3 camera, on Arista EDU (aka Fomapan) 200 film, with the good old "Sunny 16 Rule," for how to shoot without a light meter. (Ok so admittedly there's like half a dozen shots that aren't of the steel mills there, but whatever lol)

Really love the look that I got from this. Arista/Foma film is very old school, and gives such a nice vintage look when paired with a real old camera.

Hope everyone enjoys!

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Remember When: Pennsylvania posted
Historic Johnstown PA • Undated photo!
Jack Davis shared
I'm sure someone will be able to identify this plant.
John Fabrizio: Now Gautier