SVElevator

Note: I encourage you to consider subscribing to the Spring Valley Sun-Argus. Duane and I had not subscribed to this paper for years as articles of interest to us seldom appeared. Now, each week, thanks to the new editor, Paul Seeling, interesting articles relating to the history of SV appear. We look forward to receiving each issue. I will continue to share some of these articles, but will miss many that may interest you.

Spring Valley Sun Argus, P.O. Box 69, Spring Valley, WI 54767 Phone 715-698-3995

Subscription rates - Local-$28/yr Minnesota-Wisconsin - $35/yr Everywhere else - $40/yr

Standing in front of the fanning mill removed from the second floor of the Spring Valley Elevator and feed mill (visible top center) are Front row L to R: Lee jorgenson, Arnie Brorson, Dennis Johnson, Rick Jensen and Adolph Johnson. Back row: Bill Klanderman, Dale Strom, Richard Johnson, Jim Wall, and Don Jensen.

Photo by Don Blegen

"Ten men line up in front of a wooden-and metal contraption with the Spring Valley Elevator and feed mill visible in the top center of the photo. The contraption is a "fanning mill" which was used by many years to remove impurities from grass, clover, and alfalfa seed. It used different sized sieves to remove such undesired substances as mustard seed, weed fragments, etc.
It was on the second floor of the elevator, and the guys who ran it got hot and dirty from operating it. "You sweated and you itched," Dale Strom said. It was a remarkably durable machine, and was there for a very long time--maybe as long as the elevator. It was manufactured by the Cleland Mfg. Co. of Minneapolis; they were making fanning mills as far back as 1895.
Joe DeGross has been working on cleaning out the old building, which has been a landmark in Spring Valley since 1898, when Tamberg and Sieberns constructed it. It will be coming down this week, and Joe thought it would be nice if some of those who had ties to the old building could be rounded up and photographed with the fanning mill. A lot of folks have many fond memories of the elevator in its heyday. It was a busy place.
Bill Klanderman's father, Floyd Klanderman owned the elevator from 1935 until his death in 1968. Leonard Wall of Wilson took it over, and his son Jim Wall ran it for many years after that. Don and Rick Jensen, Adolph Johnson and his son Dennis Johnson, Richard Johnson, Arnie Brorson, Lee Jorgenson, and Dale Strom all operated the fanning mill at one time or other.
Other past fanning mill operators include Carl and Andy Lynum, Johnnie Samb, Karl Moritz, Alvin Olson, Alois Ducklow, Jr., Robert Bemis, Sr. and Robert Bemis Jr. A bit of history will be lost this week as the old building comes down."

Spring Valley landmark falls

Kaye Bird, Spring Valley Sun-Argus October 7, 2009

Photo by Kaye Bird

"A landmark in Spring Valley since 1898, when Tanberg and Sieberns constructed it, the Spring Valley Elevator and feed mill came down last week to make way for the addition to Genesis Industries. Many Village residents watched as the old structure was pulled over. It took a bit of work to accomplish the demolition; it seemed as if the well built landmark did not want to go down easily."

Photographs taken by Ron Odalen's niece, Briana:

The following appeared in the October 5 issue of the

Pierce County Herald, Ellsworth, WI:

Felled after fight

The feed mill in Spring Valley was brought down to the ground last week, but not without a fight. A work crew first pulled on the structure as hard as they might, but it wouldn’t topple. Then, they threw a cable over the top to try a different approach, and it promptly broke. Finally, success as the mill’s remains settled in a cloud of dust.

Rosemary's comment:"I walked past the Feed Mill twice a day going to and from school and also the many times I worked at our hardware store. I know times have to change, so now the Feed Mill joins Forthun's Motel and our hardware store, plus many others only in our memories."

Russell remembers: Ah yes. The old Spring Valley Elevator.
These pictures and article bring forth a long dormant memory of the fanning mill. I spent much of my first decade growing up in the ’South End’ of our Village. I recall now hearing that fanning mill quite clearly. It was not loud from a distance and the fan sound was not unpleasant now that I recall it.

Somewhere around my twelfth trip around our star we moved into my grandparent’s house on the hill above the old railroad depot, where I proceeded to put the finishing touches on my blissfully ignorant and oft misspent youth. It seems that the fanning mill sound was louder there, but still certainly not irritating at all. In fact by that time the sound of it occasionally firing up (bad choice of phrase perhaps – my guess is that the dry organic dust was potentially very combustible) was simply background hum for our hamlet.

As a South End kid (like Rosemary) the mill was in my line of travel. And as boys, we were naturally attracted to the neat rows and columns of bags full of grain and other stuff. We played many fun hour in the storage end of the mill.

Of course that was dangerous. I can certainly see that now, but we did not tumble to it as youngsters.

Well, the warehouse part of the complex (north half) was about as far from the office and the fanning mill (south half) as the structure would permit. Furthermore there were as I recall it three loading doors on the cement apron (west) local side where vehicles could back right up to the structure and load/unload, and a couple of big doors on the railroad (east) ’international’ side. The furthest door north was on the local side and had a concrete dock and stairs – and was our favored point of entry while the adults were busy at the south end of the mill.

Well, the big people would get wind of the fact that we were on-site and playing in the stacks, so they would send one of the workers north to chase us out. We pretty much knew when they were coming and could scamper out that north door and down the steps to lose ourselves in the teeming metropolis of SV.

At some point we decide that there was room for mischief (that is mischief that even we could identify as such) and a bigger payback for being rousted from our stacks of grain. When we saw the worker coming through the warehouse we would hesitate long enough to make sure he saw us and that there was some chance of collaring one of us, then we would scram out the door and down the steps.

That is all but one of us. Oh, did I forget to mention that the three access doors to the warehouse had sliding doors? And the north door was mounted on the outside with a nice place on the dock for a pint sized kid to stand when slamming it shut just before the grain constable was ready to come barging through it.

I remember us doing that just once. I suspect that upped the ante and made us personae non grata. I don’t recall any of us playing in our grain castles after that.

Oh, and to answer your burning question: no, we never got caught - but I am sure they knew who we were. And no, the operation would probably not meet OSHA standards today.

Rosemary, a few of the other ghostly landmarks came to mind as I was writing this; Railroad depot, coal sheds, tracks, Skelly fuel tanks, Mobil fuel tanks, the old school house (where the library is now), the gym across the street, the foundry and the Creamery. My guess is that the Pence Auto Co. will meet the same fate soon.