The aging ADM grain elevator rises over the Harris Machinery Co. building in Minneapolis, a reminder of the city’s long industrial relationship with grain milling and riverfront commerce. These concrete storage silos and metal-clad headhouses were once central to moving Midwestern grain through the milling district, part of an infrastructure network that fueled Minneapolis’s identity as the “Flour Milling Capital of the World.” Harris Machinery Co., a longtime supplier of industrial equipment, occupies the foreground, its brick façade contrasting with the weathered surfaces of the towering elevator. The structures together illustrate the layered industrial history of the city’s working riverfront.

Gold Medal Flour sign lit up on top of the Washburn Crosby mill. Temperature: -13F.

Projection on the Gold Medal Flour concrete elevators near downtown Minneapolis.

“Revolution Will Be Televised”

The Zen-Noh Grain Corporation export facility in Convent, Louisiana, operates along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The terminal handles millions of tons of corn, soybeans, and other grains each year, transferring them from rail and barge to ocean-going vessels for global shipment. At night, the towering conveyor systems and loading arms glow under industrial lights, reflecting the region’s central role in U.S. agricultural exports.

Illuminated under floodlights, the massive concrete grain silos of the Zen-Noh Grain Corporation terminal rise over the Mississippi River in Convent, Louisiana. Operated by a U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s Zen-Noh agricultural cooperative, this export facility plays a critical role in shipping Midwestern grain to international markets. The illuminated conveyors and loading structures highlight the region’s industrial link between river transport and global food supply chains.

The illuminated sign for Mill Ruins Park glows at night along the Minneapolis riverfront, where historic flour mill foundations meet modern development. Behind it, a portrait mural and new residential buildings rise near the preserved remnants of the city’s milling heyday.

Train tracks outside the long abandoned massive concrete Archer-Daniels-Midland Delmar Elevator No. 7 in Minneapolis.

The long abandoned massive concrete Archer-Daniels-Midland Delmar Elevator No. 7 in Minneapolis.

Weathered and monumental, these grain elevators in Kansas City, Missouri stand as relics of the city’s early 20th-century agricultural dominance. The concrete silos and headhouses—once vital for storing and shipping grain along the Missouri River—still loom over the industrial district near the rail corridors. Layers of peeling paint and rusted conveyor housings reveal decades of exposure to the Midwestern climate, while their towering form recalls the scale of regional commerce that helped define Kansas City’s role as a national freight and grain hub.

Gold Medal Flour in downtown Minneapolis on November 5, 2018.

Gold Medal Flour neon sign in downtown Minneapolis.

CHS elevators in Superior, Wisconsin.

General Mills elevator in Minneapolis.

The Cedar Lake Trail passes through the industrial district of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, illuminated here by the community’s water tower and nearby grain elevators. This segment of the trail follows a former railroad right-of-way once used by the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway, which connected local industries to the region’s freight network. The corridor’s transformation into one of the country’s first bicycle “freeways” in the 1990s marked a major milestone in urban redevelopment and sustainable transportation planning.

Once lined with lumberyards, steel fabricators, and mills, the area surrounding the trail reflects the industrial origins of St. Louis Park—a community that grew rapidly in the early 20th century due to its proximity to both Minneapolis and key rail junctions. The trail today bridges that history, offering cyclists and commuters a route through a landscape where freight trains, utility towers, and legacy industry remain active reminders of the city’s manufacturing past.

Grain Elevator in Thunder Bay, Canada.

Grain Elevator in Thunder Bay, Canada.

The remains of the Saskatchewan Pool B complex in Thunder Bay, Ontario, stand as a testament to the city’s industrial and maritime heritage. Once part of one of the largest grain handling networks on the Great Lakes, these structures were built in the early 20th century to serve the growing wheat trade flowing from the Canadian Prairies to Atlantic markets. Operations here slowed by the 1980s as newer, more efficient elevators replaced them. Today, the site lies silent along the waterfront, its silos and offices weathered by decades of Lake Superior winds.

Overgrown foliage surrounds the rusting stairway of the former Saskatchewan Pool B grain elevator in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Built in 1928 as part of the cooperative grain-handling network operated by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the facility once stored and shipped millions of bushels of prairie wheat through the Lake Superior port. After decades of service under the Canadian Wheat Board era, the elevator was decommissioned and left to decay, its concrete silos and steel infrastructure now reclaimed by vegetation and time along the industrial waterfront.

A rusted steel door and staircase, now surrounded by dense summer growth, mark one of the remaining entrances to the Saskatchewan Pool B grain elevator in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Completed in 1928, this concrete complex was once among the largest cooperative elevators on the Lakehead, operated by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to handle prairie grain for export through the Great Lakes. After the decline of Canada’s centralized grain trade, the elevator was shuttered and abandoned, leaving its reinforced concrete and steel framework to slowly merge with the encroaching forest.

Superior Minerals Company in Savage, MN