Minnesota 2020 Journal: Building on, not trapped by, tradition

Grain elevators and small towns go together like grain elevators and small towns. They’re inseparable. The one doesn’t exist without the other. What happens to the town when the grain elevator disappears? The old Walnut Grove-Revere Farmers Elevator is coming down. It will shortly be a pile of wood shavings destined for poultry bedding. It’s an ignominious end to a structure that sustained my hometown. But, this isn’t a romantic reflection on an idyllic past. Even in death the elevator serves the agricultural cycle while highlighting the opportunity for rural economic development that builds on tradition but isn’t trapped by…