Towanda Barnes Road, which runs along the eastern fringe of both Bloomington and Normal, is a symbol of the sprawling, seemingly unchecked growth of the Twin Cities. Yet amid the brand new residential and commercial developments sprouting up and down the corridor stands a lonely reminder of McLean County's past - a past measured not by cul-de-sac subdivisions, daycare centers and Kwik-E-Marts, but rather one measured by corn, livestock and the steam engine.

The anachronistic collection of grain elevators and storage buildings at the northeast corner of Towanda Barnes and General Electric roads was once known as Barnes, a small station stop and siding on an Illinois Central Railroad branch line.

Established in 1882-1883, Barnes (called Barnesville early on) was situated on the IC's Bloomington District, which ran from Normal northeast to Otto in Kankakee County. This "Bloomer Line" connected the IC's two main north-south routes, scooping up grain from a swath of the richest agricultural land in the world.

Locally this right-of-way survives as the branch of Constitution Trail beginning south of Uptown Normal and running east over Linden Street, past the Shoppes at College Hills and down G.E. Road.

Barnes, the first station east of Normal, was named for either family patriarch Calvin Barnes or his son Monroe, accounts vary. Calvin Barnes came to McLean County in the early 1850s, purchasing a full section-640 acres-in Towanda Township. Although the family amassed additional acreage, the southwestern corner of their home section would become the future site of Barnes.

Calvin Barnes became a successful wheat grower before establishing what was said to be the first successful dairy in Central Illinois. Barnes and his sons, including Alden and Calvin Jr., then turned to raising Durham cattle; growing corn; and importing and breeding French draft horses.

Barnes existed first and foremost as a grain elevator siding. Towering elevators, designed to store and transfer grain, played an important role reshaping the Central Illinois landscape. Grain elevators were a product of the emerging steam-powered Industrial Age that made possible the ability to lift grain-via scoops or buckets attached to belt-driven chains-up storage elevators hundreds of feet high. Steam power also brought corn-shellers and, most importantly, the railroads.

In the 30 or so years after the end of the Civil War, railroad mileage in McLean County doubled, and a fair number of "steam-hatched" towns popped up along these rails, including those on the Bloomer Line such as Cooksville, Anchor and Cropsey. In addition to towns, elevator sidings such as Barnes were built to further accommodate the region's seasonal flood of grain. By the late 19th century, McLean County had one of the highest densities of railway tracks in the world.

The Barnes post office opened for business in February 1884, and remained in operation until December 1919. An 1895 plat of Barnes shows a rather ambitious layout with four streets and 22 commercial or residential lots, though only three were occupied at the time-and it's unlikely the hamlet grew any larger. However, along the IC there was the combined depot/post office, and down a siding an elevator complex and stockyard.

In 1921, the recently married Walter and Alta Weber opened a general store in Barnes. "[My mother] sold groceries, tobacco, pop, tires etc.," remembered Alta's son William Weber, who wrote a brief recollection of Barnes in 2005. "My mother has told that George Mecherle, founder of State Farm Insurance, would get off the train, while it switched, and come over to the store and buy pop, candy or whatever. She said he looked like a typical farmer in those days." At the time, Mecherle was traveling on the Bloomer Line between Merna, his old hometown, and Bloomington, where he was getting a start in the insurance business.

Still visible today are cylindrical concrete grain elevators, originally built by the Barnes Grain Co. around 1919 (see accompanying photograph). Later that decade, the company purchased two elevators adjacent to its operations, and by the mid-1970s its capacity reached 400,000 bushels.

The Illinois Central Gulf (ICG) Railroad abandoned the stretch of the old Bloomer Line running from Kankakee County to Barnes in 1981. Sometime afterward, the ICG abandoned the remaining run from Barnes to Normal Junction, which in its latter years served Eaton Asphalt Co., the General Electric plant east of the "beltline," now Veterans Parkway, and several other local businesses.

In 1985, the ICG sold its abandoned Bloomington District to a group of area producers and shippers, who then established a "short-line" railroad on the old tracks. Today this line, owned by Gibson City-based Alliance Grain Co., is known as the Bloomer Shippers Connecting Railroad. After a while, this new road discontinued service between Colfax and Barnes, marking the permanent end of rail service to the little station stop.