Grenola's Elevator Museum
Grenola's Elevator Museum
Location: Downtown Grenola
Contact: Phone--316/358-2570
Admission: Donations Appreciated.
All photos copyright H. Schuster. Please ask for permission before using.
Grain trucks don't line up at the Grenola elevator any more, except for the antique one on display here. When the old elevator closed in 1985, a group of local citizens bought it and, with many hours of hard volunteer labor, turned it into a museum. Today, instead of grain, the wooden elevator holds articles from the Grenola area's past.
The train doesn't stop here anymore; it doesn't even slow down. Once railroad cars were filled with grain on this siding, but changing times and economics brought an end to this. Larger elevators in larger towns now handle the grain.
Grain is not the only thing once shipped from Grenola by rail. From 1881 to 1884, this was the largest cattle shipping point in Kansas. The cattle boom settled down as the railroads were extended west, and Grenola became just one of a long list of former cattle towns which could look back on a glorious past and busier days.
All of the items on display in the museum are from the Grenola area. Displays range from household to general store. Some of the old elevator equipment has been left in place as well. This is one of the few places the public can see the workings of a grain elevator.
School lunch pails are lined up as if just put there by students in one of two old one-room schools on the museum grounds. The museum also has a wealth of information and records on former residents of the Grenola area.