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| NewsSaturday, January 21, 2006 12:54 AM CST |
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Grain elevator was town's last standing reminder
CHENOA - The last remnant of a lost town along historic Route 66 has been demolished. The grain elevator that marked where the town of Ballard used to be was leveled on Friday. The elevator was on the east side of Route 66 and Interstate 55 between Lexington and Chenoa. "Another one of the historic artifacts of Route 66 has fallen to the high hoe," said Jim Jones, tour director of the Illinois Route 66 Association Hall of Fame and Museum in Pontiac. Ken Lee of Lee Excavating in Onarga said it took less then an hour to bring down the structure. He said it was about 80 feet tall. Before it was demolished, the grain elevator, stood on a flagstone foundation, was covered in a tin shell and had two concrete arches marking where weight stations used to be. The Graham and Bennion Elevator, as it was called, was built in the 1900s and was closed before the 1960s, according to the Route 66 group. The elevator was owned by the Prairie Central Cooperative, which also owns elevators in Chenoa, Ocoya and Fairbury. Officials with the cooperative could not be reached for comment. Jones said several of the rural towns along Route 66 had grain elevators. Over the years, several towns have fallen off the map or dropped to small populations, he said. A railroad sign is now the only remaining indication that a community called Ballard used to be there. About 10 men demolished the building, using three pieces of heavy machinery. Lee said scrap metal, including some pipes and motors, will be sorted from the rubble, and the rest will be taken to a landfill. Lee said the tin shell of the building had been falling off and most of the wood on one side of the building had rotted. Lee said they had to work with the Union Pacific Railroad and Illinois State Police during the demolition. The demolition could not be done until trains in the area were cleared. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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