Two million board feet reclaimed white pine

Dismantling under way [Photo Woodchuck]

Superior, Wisconsin USA - WISCONSIN Woodchuck, formed two year's ago, is dismantling what was the world's largest grain silo in 1887, to reclaim and estimated two million board feet of antique white pine, fir and spruce.

The building was covered with corrugated sheet metal, protecting both the wood and its grain contents. The inside of the main building was an architectural wonder. The top floors housed ten enormous antique cast-iron pulley wheels, each weighing 4400 pounds. It also contained three huge grain distributors, each of which fed grain into an octopus that directed the grain into separate bins. Oak-pegged mortise-and-tenon joints exist throughout the building. [Woodchuck's web site.]

"Taking down a 120-year-old wooden structure that's 150 feet high and has a footprint of 20,000 square feet is a formidable feat of engineering," says Hozza, a native Minnesotan who once served as president of the St. Paul City Council. "We hired the CR Meyer company, which brought in the biggest crane anyone up here had ever seen." The perimeter of the building is constructed of 2x8 and 2x10 planks pancaked on top of each other to form 10-inch-thick walls. Inside is a honeycomb of bin walls made of 2x6's and 2x8's - all reinforced with gargantuan beams. Many of the beams are 10 x 14's that range up to 36 feet in length. [Judy Peres, Architectural Salvage News Nov06]

Wisconsin Woodchuck Llc
Architectural Salvage News