Only the silos will remain
May 6—Jackson Farms has purchased and is tearing down the former Sugar Creek Elevator, keeping only the silos for grain storage.
Dean Jackson said he and his son, Sloan, purchased the property back in November and started demolition last month.
"The old elevator part used years ago ... we're taking it down," Jackson said. "It was not functional for us."
The site will definitely look different by the harvest this year. Jackson said the looks should improve. It should "get rid of the varmints" living in the basement and upstairs in the old elevator, he added.
The silos will remain to hold the farm's grain. Jackson Farms is on County Road 300 North, right by the interstate.
"Everything that was used years ago when they ground feed and used it as a working elevator," Jackson added.
Jackson said he looked at the place 20 years ago when another family out of Frankfort purchased it.
Jackson Farms was established by Dean's father, Donald, in 1954. The silos along Interstate 65 carry a tribute to basketball phenom Rick Mount. The Jacksons farm 8,800 acres. That's double in size since Sloan joined the farm a decade ago.
"I tell people, I don't go to work, I go and hang out with my son," Dean said. "It makes it so much more enjoyable."
The demolition is relatively low-cost. Jackson said the company is taking most of his pay in the scrap steel salvaged.
"And we got a guy out of Kentucky salvaging the wood that he can, that he knows he can resell," Jackson said. "So all we're paying for is for some crane work and rent on another piece of equipment."
The old office's fate has not been decided. The building on the corner is being inspected to see if it is in good enough shape to keep, Jackson said.
Farms use the silos to save the grain to sell it later in the year, when prices are, presumably, better.
"You got this glut of grain coming in the fall, well it's always cheap then," he said. "Storage, most years, makes you money."
Grain elevators have a long history in Thorntown. A Country Gentleman magazine article from 1916 said the elevator was a co-op of area farmers. The Thorntown elevator company was established in 1912 for $16,000. It paid members a 2- or 3-cent bonus for every bushel of grain it handled.
Jackson said this year's planting has gone very well. Only 60 acres of beans are left to plant. It's the earliest he said they've ever been done.
