One of Kansas’ earliest, and ultimately most successful, ag entrepreneurs was George Gano (1871-1952), who by the 1920s owned a chain of 45 grain elevators in western Kansas. Among today’s survivors is the elevator at Ardell, located between Offerle and Kinsley along the BNSF main line.
In the early 1900s, spurred by strong demand, favorable prices, and a run of good weather, farmers transformed southwestern Kansas into a sea of wheat. The need for short-term storage resulted in “country” elevators springing up along rail lines, within short distances of the crop. The Ardell Gano elevator was built to compete with the Kansas Grain Company elevator which also survives at the site. Its 15,000 bushel capacity was small even for the time, but adequate to the needs of the relatively small area it was designed to serve.
The building’s construction is wood frame, clad in metal, a style that would be dominant until the 1940s when larger, fire-resistant concrete structures became the standard. It featured an electric lift that tilted the grain wagon, and later the grain truck, upward to dump the contents into a pit beneath the floor. As grain hauling equipment grew larger, the system became obsolete.
Gano Grain operated in Kansas until its merger with Bunge Corporation in 1947.
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