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Oklahoma | Ran across some old photos of the Kansas City Stockyards. I never got to see it as the first time I went to the American Royal was just after they had cleaned a bunch of it up and remodeled that area in the early 90s. I had heard from friends about the pens stacked on top of each other and ramps running from one level to another. I guess I am amazed that someone back then thought about making "stories" of pens. I was wondering if anyone had seen this and what the reasoning for it was? The concrete and supports had to be more expensive than expansion on the ground as I can't imagine what the load limit would have had to have been. And I would think that the "run off" would have created a whole new set of problems.
http://www.richardloftis.com/photographs/Classic/The_Kansas_City_St...
I had the chance to see Omaha with a in-law that had worked there and I thought it was "cool" to hear his stories about working there. I really wish I would have taken some more time with him and had him show me more of the grounds below the roof line as he passed away about the time they tore all that down.
I guess I am continuously amazed at some of the ag industry in previous generations as to what is built to build an industry. |
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Brazilton KS | I have seen them, but only driving through the area. They are not build in the middle of the high plains...they are right smack downtown, packed in between the railroads and everything else. Up is about the only way they could get any capacity. |
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| and... I'm a little unsure whether this is fact or not but, I was told as a kid that the kill floor was on the top of the packing houses. This was to allow the animals to 'power' themselves (walking) up the ramps to the highest level, and once killed, gravity would assist their return trip to lower levels while hanging from a rail. Building the pens upward might been a way to have more livestock readily accessible to the entrance point of the kill floor? I remember going along for the ride when delivering loads of fat hogs to the stockyards at St. Joe as a kid, and driving under the big ramp that went across the street from the holding pens at ground level to the top of the kill plant. Never got to (or wanted to) tour a kill plant back in those days, so not sure about any of the validity of what I was told. But it does sort of make sense. Seems like there may have been a 'documentary' of some sort years back that addressed the use of gravity, to assist in the movement of carcasses 'back in the day', but I can't remember where I'm getting that particular memory from. |
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North Mo. | When I was on the U of Mo. Meats judging team we used to go to KC alot to practice. At that time there were still quite a few plants operating then, true the animals walked to the top and it was all downhill from there. Remember seeing some of the biggest guys swing 1/2 carcasses into trucks to ship out. I would not have wanted to mess with them. Sawdust was on the floors if I remember right. Ben |
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| I'm old enough to remember the sides, or more likely quarters, being carried from the truck into the grocery store on someone's shoulder. Part of the time the guy packing it would have on a clean white coat, other times they would just throw a white cloth around the piece of carcass and away they went. Wasn't there a particular highway corner or an overpass in KC that was disastorous to trucks with 'swingin meat'? |
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Missouri | Very nice organization called the Stockyard Collector which puts out a nice booklet magazine 4 times a year to it members. It will have photo's and stories written about the yards. Good bunch, that are dedicated to preserving the history of the stockyards an educating others, membership $25/year. These guys have collected lots of stuff out of these yards. My guess is the American Royal's days are numbered. Not sure on the curve, the Benton Curve going into KC on I-70 gets trucks all the time. I have photos of the auction, to close up the KC stockyards. Wish I could scan them and post. Been looking for a large sign sold that day that said KC STOCKYARDS Come Again. Would like to know where that sign went. I got one of the Pig scale beams. Some really good stories came out of those days. |
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S.E. South Dakota | Talking about stockyards what public yards are still open?Sioux Falls S.D. is slowly dieing they had there last cattle sale this spring. |
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Nwmo | The meat packing plants have been gone for quite some time in St. Joe but I have heard several stories from people who used to work in them.
I had a highschool teacher who used to paint in the DugDale packing house. He said the owner was a big time Safari big game hunter type, and every once in a while the bolt guns or stun guns wouldn't completely knock the cattle out. When this happened they would have a cow running wild through the packing house. The owner would clear everybody out and hunt it with a rifle.
The Saint Joe Stock yard at one time was the 4th largest in the country, they had a really nice Stock yard exchange building that is actually still there but it is very bad disrepair. A couple of local business owners bought it several years ago with intentions of fixing it up and making a museum out of it but so far not much has happened.
My Great grandfather used to raise hogs and he started printing a booklet of various hog prices and other information important to people raising or selling hogs and grew that business into a printing business that is still in operation today down on 4th in Saint Joseph. The building is actually an old old packing house. They have a couple of rooms in the back with old hemp string hanging from the ceiling and was still there when I was a kid, Those two rooms were the meat hanging rooms.
I think the Meatpacking industry is very interesting, the numbers that places like Saint Joseph or KC or Chicago were moving are just astounding. At the Turn of the century I think they say St Joe was moving a million hogs a year and close to that in Cattle and Sheep
Devin
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S.E. Iowa | The union stockyards in Chicago in 1947 was located on 475 acres and employed 40,000 people within the various packing plants. 2000 of those inthe yard and trasit alone. at its largest it covered a solid square mile 50 miles of roads and a 120 miles of tracks. 82% of the meat in the United Staes was processed there. Been told stories of my wifes grandfatherin the 50s loading 3 train cars of cattle on special trains for chicago and then riding with other cattleman to the yards. Must of been quite an expierence for a Iowa farmer |
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North Central Kansas | My dad used to take cattle to KC back in the 30's and 40's. Used to ride up with the truck drivers to the stockyards. Hard to imagine taking a truckload of cattle that far in the trucks they had on the roads they had. |
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W. Kansas | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle
You want some stockyard/packing house stories, this read will enlighten you.
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Gilroy 35 Miles Over the Hill From Santa Cruz | Dad has Photos of the Denver Yards he took in 1957 _ I saw recent photos from there on another site _ other than the cars, trucks and trailers not that much has changed.
Dad also has some good stories of Taking 2 Rail Car Loads Of Show Cattle (Hereford) by rail from California to MADSON Sq GARDEN in 1955 (a 7 day trip one way- counting a 1 day lay-over on the edge of the Stockyards in KC where they were NOT allowed to Off Load the cattle)
The Show Team (cowboys) traveled in a Caboose. (No Showers) Dad says he and his friend slept on the straw in a "Cattle Car" (Smelt better and Quieter) (No Snoring)
A 25 day trip overall _ their plans were to hit the Grand National in Denver on the way Home but Bad Shavings caused the cattle to Loose Coat |
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SW MN | I wonder how many cows would die on hot day in those yards? (speaking of KC) Looks huge. I heard before Sioux Falls closed that in the 70's it was the largest stockyard at the time.? |
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S.E. South Dakota | I maybe wrong i think Sioux City became the largest in the late 60s.Then in the mid 70s Sioux Falls did.Thursday night 8-13-09 at 8:00 CST South Dakota PBS will be showing the last cattle sale in Sioux Falls. |
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| During the 50's, I went with my Dad about yearly when he sold his fat cattle at the KC stockyards. The first time I remember, we drove the cattle 5 miles to town on horseback and loaded them on the train for the 350 mile trip to KC. Several years latter, the cattle trucks came to the farm and we hitched a ride. I remember the trucker I was riding with getting pulled over on the Kansas Turnpike in the middle of the night, he was going in excess of 90 mph. The sights and sound of the big city and the stockyards, left a big impression on this small town boy, and those pictures sure bring back a lot of memories.
Edited by idea1947 8/12/2009 22:54
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| Wow, I'd like to see that. |
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Oklahoma | Thanks for all the posts and stories. I remember the in-law giving me the tour of Omaha talked about tunnels to take cattle under the railroad tracks to the packing plants. Said there were even holding pens underground in places. Seems like he did mention that they would walk to the top of the packing plants also but that has been a few years ago. Kind of funny that my wife's family is from south of Omaha and when we were talking they claimed "Omaha is the biggest stockyard" and I grew up hearing Oklahoma City was the biggest, but OKC was stockers and feeders. They all probably have had their own time in the spotlight.
Work with several older ranchers that sent lots of cattle to KC and Omaha by train. Still have a set of shipping pens in the area that run beside abandon tracks. One rancher told me as a kid they would start driving about dark and drive all night to arrive at the pens about 4 am for a 8 am train and they would be the 4th or 5th herd in line to load, if there was room.
If any of you want to read about the history of the major stockyards and the meat packing industry, Livestock Hotels is a decent read. Not great but I did learn alot. Quite a bit of history related to stockyards, packing plants, railroads, and the development of refridgerated railcars.
Thanks again. |
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Treynor IA | Living only 20 miles from the Omaha Stockyards I spent a lot of time there with my dad and later I shipped there until they closed. Here is the rise and fall of the stockyards in pictures. |
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Treynor IA | x
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Old Kansas City Stockyards Questions
