LOWE HISTORY

With the minutes missing from the 1930’s, the exact dates and details here may not be quite right, but other research indicates that the Everly Grain Co., owned by Howard H. Everly, a former Garden City Co-op manager, owned and operated a wooden frame elevator which was built in 1931. This elevator had a storage capacity of 15,000 bushels and was sold to the Garden City Co-op in 1934 for $7,000. This elevator burned down in October of 1948.

In January 1949, the Board voted to rebuild the Lowe Elevator only as a loading point elevator and to build additional storage later as needed. The original concrete structure was built with a storage capacity of 45,000 at a cost of $59,145.

In 1954, the members of the Co-op encouraged the Board of Directors to engage in the distribution and application of fertilizer for their members. By August 1954, the Co-op started a fertilizer department at Lowe with the installation of an anhydrous ammonia plant and the purchase of some application equipment.

In 1958, an annex was added to the elevator adding 312,500 bushels of additional storage.

In 1999, an additional 930,000 bushels of storage was added bring the total storage capacity up to 1,342,000 bushels. A new 12,000 bph leg and dump pit and a 3,000 bph Zimmerman dryer were also installed.

In 2014, we added six McPherson bins for a total of 836,253 bushels of new storage as well as a 20,000 bushels per hour leg with a 500 bushel pit and the ability to fill the previous ten McPhersons for a grand total capacity of 2,261,000 bushels.