Prairie skyscrapers

Rensselaer's "prairie skyscrapers" always seem to invite a photograph. Here, in the early morning light of December, is elevator that at one time was the Farm Bureau elevator.

North of the tracks and a bit to the west is what used to be the Cargill elevator. Now the Wheatfield Grain Company runs both of these elevators. (The website of Wheatfield Grain isn't very helpful, is it?)

The buildings in the foreground are the empty buildings of what was for many years a lumber yard. George Warden at one time owned it. At least one of my children, who is now an adult, used to visit him when he was an old man. After he retired, it did business as Von Tobels, and not far away the Farm Bureau had another excellent lumber yard. Even though Rensselaer has no lumber yard superstores, I think those superstores, plus the increased use of prefabrication, have eliminated the market that the lumberyards needed.
Here are both of the elevators, almost making a canyon for an arriving Amtrak train.