Farmers Elevator Grain Tower, Rural Wisconsin

Farmers Elevator grain towers like this one once anchored small farming communities across the rural Midwest, providing local growers a place to weigh, store, and sell their harvest. Built mostly of wood with corrugated metal siding, these structures used a system of buckets and chutes to lift grain into tall storage bins before rail or truck shipment. Many operated as farmer-owned cooperatives, giving members a stake in local grain pricing rather than relying solely on distant markets. Though modern steel and concrete elevators have replaced most of them, a number of these wooden towers still stand across Wisconsin's countryside, often abandoned or repurposed.

Photo taken in July 2008.