The South St. Paul, MN Stockyards held their final auction Friday after more than 120 years. Once the largest stockyards in the world it covered more than 150 acres. Today they cover less than 30. Its kinda weird, now any market animals will have to go south or north a ways when they are headed to the auction block.
Heres a clip from the local paper.
"The yards, which date back to 1886, once spanned 160 acres and provided a livelihood for thousands of workers in the livestock industry. Farmers, yardmen, buyers, sellers, butchers, meatpackers, truckers and bankers all worked together to make the market one of the nation's largest. But with just 27 acres left, the yards had become a shadow of a once-booming industry that peaked in South St. Paul in 1968, with a record 3.2 million head of cattle, hogs and sheep traded. Last year, about 240,000 cattle, hogs and sheep went through Central Livestock, which employs 35 workers. The closed stockyard will be built over with offices, warehouses and industrial buildings as part of the BridgePoint Business Park, a development central to the city's revival. But for many in the city of about 20,000 residents, the closing of the yards is more psychological than economical, local historian and author Lois Glewwe said. "It's been our identity, and it's gone, and it's never going to come back," she said. "And that might sound like it's not important, but for many, many generations in this community, that was their way of life." Heres a link to the rest of the article
Link Heres a link to another article as well
http://www.wlj.net/editorial/032408_south_saint_paul_stockyards_to_close.htm
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