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TELESCOPE Page 60 Cargill Elevator as it appeared in 1978. Concrete silos are part of original North- western Elevator, dating back to the 1920's. bor, two large elevators were constructed there; both lakers and salties loaded along- side. Now only General Mills, Cargill and the idle elevators at the harbor remain. Ex- plosions and fires have claimed all the rest, including the modern, monolithic concrete elevators at 92nd Street and at the Skyway slip. My wife and I attended two spectacular grain-structure fires. Late in the evening of January 31, 1957, a five-alarm blaze erupted in a Continental elevator, lighting brilliantly the area around the turning basin south of 92nd Street. Wooden elevator and contents burned fiercely, and fire fighters poured in tons of water. The wet grain smoldered for many days afterward, but delighted pigeons flew in anyway to feast on what had become a fermenting grain mash. Many of them be- came drunk enough that flight was impaired! In the summer of 1953 a vacant grain structure on a site slated for Skyway construction took fire and burned to ashes. That one disappoin- ted the pigeons. Within memory is the dust explosion and ensuing fire which removed a large wooden elevator from the south end of the Rail-to-Water Transfer property in 1939. The few remaining elevators have brought in some considerable vessels, such as Mon- trealais, Comeaudoc and Murray Bay, which could haul in ore, wash and dry holds and get a return load toward tidewater. Ship building and repair had their place along the Calumet. The old Chicago Ship Building Company at 100th Street, with two graving docks, a slip, a riverside crane and ample machine shop facilities launched 77 vessels between 1892 and 1911. Its last was Pere Marquette 18 (ii), rushed to completion after its like-named predecessor foundered. Minnesota Steamship Company was a major customer; Mariposa, Maritana, Marcia, Malta, Mauna Loa and others of that fleet came out of the Chicago yard. Ultimately purchased by the American Ship Building Company, this yard closed in 1982, but some of its pro- ducts remained in service until the deluge of thousand-footers engulfed them. At least one still floats as a storage hulk at Goderich. In its time the yard lengthened Johnstown, Author's Photo