The Fleck Corn Crib ACO Silo - One of a Kind!
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- čas přidán 12. 03. 2024
- ACO silos are still common across southwestern Minnesota, mostly within a 50-mile radius of Springfield. This area is also prime corn growing country. Here, Anton Fleck Jr. built a one-of-a-kind corn crib ACO silo on a portion of his farm in Essig, Minnesota. Anton worked as a mason on an ACO silo construction crew in the 1920s and early 1930s. When he became a farmer, he used his skills and connection to the Ochs brickyard to erect this rare corn crib silo. Although this corn crib ACO silo is no longer used today, it looks like it could easily last another 100 years.
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Absolute work of art!
Thank you for sharing your interest.
Great find, and thank you!
I saw an ACO corn crib near Marshall back in August 2014! Until I saw this video, I didn’t realize that it was an actual corn crib until I took an closer look again at the photo. Thank you for the information!
If you have any other information on the Marshall ACO corn crib, I would love to hear it. Maybe there are more out there..
I used to deliver liquid oxygen to Rochester MN from the Praxair plant at Inver Grove Heights. South of thete on the east side of Hwy 52 is a beautiful kept farm with a barn and silo built from this company
The big draw back to the clay brick corn crib would be a tendency to draw moisture. I live in Michigan. Most ear corn was put up in wood cribs that had a bay in the middle which was usually also filled with corn and fed out first. Wire crips started showing up in the 50s and then they also made them out of snow fence. The wire cribs were probably cheap to put up but the big draw back to me was snow blowing in the day before you needed to grind a batch of feed. We had a lot of dairy cows, beef and the most sheep east of the Mississippi in my county at one time.
There was (i think its still there) an aco silo in bloomington on the west side of bush lake in bloomington. Now surrounded by newer homes it was once part of the johanssen farmstead that dated from the middle 1870s. The home was removed for redevelopment in the 1990s and the silo is all that remained.
Liked you video
Oh man, we have something sort of similar on our farm south of Jackson, but it's more of an oval shape. Still in great shape, too.
I also love looking at surviving hollow clay tile structures. Thank you for your interest. I don’t think I heard you explain that these were built for storing yellow, ear corn to reduce the moisture or how many bushels it actually held or why they rarely use them anymore.
Yes, it was made for storing whole ears of corn. I have no idea how many bushels it held, good question. Many farmers today dry their corn in natural gas powered driers. I have seen some occasionally being used today.
Another draw back, clean out , all those square holes that are deep in nature!
There are some in the alex . Elbow lake mn. Area I enjoy looking for silos of all types when I travel around
Omg I would to have one here in pa
There were a few sort of similar cribs built from concrete by either Norling or Hanson silo in Kandiyohi county. They used some concrete blocks that had a coarse wire mesh embedded in the holes. Not very common and one of those 2 companies (I am never sure who made what) had a steel framed wire mesh crib with a metal roof that was much more popular. My own family farm had a few of those and many in the area. My dad would say those concrete ones did not flow air that well so the corn did not dry. These ACO ones could have been similar.
At one time, there was a double one of the concrete cribs with a common roof I used to drive past on I think county 8 btw Lake Lillian and Kandiyohi. Not sure it still exists.
ACO silos were not often seen in my family area due to the Norling and Hanson ones. Used to see a few on farms closer to Mpls when driving on hwy 7.
I’ve spotted a aco silo just north of Madison SD on hwy 81 you can see her from the road
Pretty sure there's another one just south of Gaylord on Hwy 19
Such a well-maintained property. Nice to see a provenance of ownership willing to spend the money for preservation.
Have you been able to acquire any of the Ochs "flag" finials? Some silo custom lettering looks painted - limited number of molds at the factory? Maybe just A, O and C?
Watched the construction video. Wondering if the metal bands in the material lists have survived the decades of weathering.
Wondering why this particular silo seems shorter than other examples, and lower than the 30" minimum size preferred by the company - a custom build? Unique in your experience?
Is the barn, which looks to be in excellent condition, worth a video of its own?
I have only seen about 3-5 Ochs flag finials. Most of them were not in good shape due to people shooting at them (full of holes). They tore down a beautiful silo where I live, with concrete ACO letters on the outside. I inquired about saving the letters and was told they tried, but they wouldn't come off easily. I just think people want to quickly destroy things and don't want to take the time to save something...it costs less.
Who Owens the Fleck silo now? I live in Indiana and I am a Fleck we found this very interesting. Just wondering if you had a contact number of people that own it now to see if we could tour it to see it?
I don't know who the current owner is, sorry.