A Gallery Of Michigan Grain Elevators And Mills

In the past, the ""elevator"" was an even more important part of farm life than it is today. It was a place where the farmer could sell his crops and buy just about everything he needed to produce them. It usually included a mill that produced animal feed, and in the more distant past often also produced flour. A Gallery of Michigan Grain Elevators and Mills provides a look at both the variety of mills and elevators serving Michigan Farmers today and those that served rural communities in the past. Many of the photos are very recent, while others dating back to the 1960's and 70's are a record of structures long gone. Historical and technical details are provided wherever they are available. It is our hope that the reader will find this look at Michigan's rich variety of mills and elevators past and present both informative and enjoyable.

More than 240 fascinating photos bring to light the importance of feed mills to American townspeople, economies, and heritage. This wealth of contemporary new photos, together with some vintage images from museum collections, give us a visual record of a changing, and passing, American institution. Covering a time frame of more than 150 years, the book's illuminating text explains what feed mills and grain elevators do, how they work, the role they have played in the American agricultural economy, and the relationship of these businesses to their farmercustomers. By focusing on three mills in depth we learn the changing technological and economicconditions that shaped, and sometimes destroyed, mills. These evocative photos capture mills in the southern half of Michigan's lower peninsula, chosen to be representative of the US mills as a whole in terms of their variety, historic evolution, and characteristics.