150 years of Corn Belt silos are vanishing: one family is racing to record them

The towering concrete silos that once defined the American Corn Belt are disappearing, and for 150 years they stood beside red barns and open fields as one of the most recognisable symbols of rural life. According to a report by KCUR, National Public Radio in Kansas City, modern farming practices have pushed many of these structures toward extinction.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, silos served an essential purpose on farms across the Midwest: storing silage, or fermented forage, that kept livestock fed year-round. As dairy and cattle operations grew in states including Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, the tall cylindrical towers, built from concrete, brick, stone or wood, became almost universal on family farms.

Now one woman is trying to make sure that history is not lost along with the structures themselves. Marianne May has spent the past six years identifying, photographing and mapping nearly 200 silos built by her grandfather, Frank May, a well-known concrete silo builder in northern Illinois, travelling across rural communities and speaking with the landowners who still live beside them.

The decline of these upright silos mirrors broader shifts in agriculture, with bunker silos, silage bags and other large-scale storage systems replacing the old towers on today’s mechanised farms. Many older structures have since fallen into disuse, and some have been demolished over safety concerns, maintenance costs or changing land use.

What started as Marianne May’s personal effort to trace her grandfather’s work has grown into a valuable record of rural agricultural history, according to the KCUR report. Preservation experts say the surviving silos represent the legacy of agricultural advancements and the craftsmanship of rural builders, and her documentation ensures that legacy will endure even where the physical structures cannot be saved.

Wikimedia Commons/by TheTechnician27