The Peavey Company was founded in Sioux City, Iowa in 1874 by Frank H. Peavey. In 1884 he moved his business to Minneapolis and incorporated it in 1906. The firm began as a grain-storage company but in 1928 expanded into flour milling with the purchase of the Van Dusen & Harrington Company, producer of flour under the “King Midas” trademark. In 1954, Peavey acquired the Minneapolis-based Russell-Miller Milling Company and merged all of their flour milling operations under the name Peavey Company Flour Mills in 1963.^[1]

The firm went public in 1973 and , in 1982, was acquired by ConAgra, Inc.^[2]

In 1982 ConAgra bought the Peavey Company, a Minneapolis-based flour miller and grain trader, giving it 16.3 percent of the nation’s wheat-milling capacity and a system of grain exporting terminals.^[3]

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Members: ToXiC, Brute, Myth, Squeek, AquaSlayer, Ludo
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 8.1
Written by: ToXiC
November, 2009 Trip #1

It was the 2nd year anniversary of the formation of the Twin Cities Urban Recon group. I decided to call everyone and his mother that had explored with us to come and meet us at the bar to have a drink or two.. or more. Every main member had shown up plus a couple new ones. After celebrating our longevity we discussed options for the night.

Several options such as Purina, Abbott Hospital and Island Station popped up. I decided we had to celebrate the night with something brand spankin new to the group as a whole. I suggested Mill Hell’s Peavey Elevator. Previously Brute, AquaSlayer and Myself had been there. Knowing how to get in and knowing it was large enough to fit this group size we ended up deciding as a group to explore it and then hit up the West Bank Tailraces.

We finished our smokes, closed our tabs and hopped in our cars.

As we were leaving Nèur@l & Eca decided to bail for reasons I don’t remember… something to do with being tired I think? Anyhow, I hopped in the car with Myth & Ludo and Squeek hopped in the car with Brute & AquaSlayer. Driving separate we just agreed to meet at our usual parking space in front of Mill Hell.

We all arrived within a couple minutes of each other. After parking we discussed our plan in detail since we don’t normally tred Mill Hell with a group this big. Being the usual scouts me and myth volunteered our Urban Recon skills about 30 seconds ahead of the rest.  We hit the normal landmarks and being weary we scouted ahead. We got to what I’ll call the crossroads when we decided to stop and wait for the rest. When the group shortly arrived I told them me and myth would scout ahead again. Progressing I signaled the rest of the group to follow. Myth was now ahead of me scouting even further. He stopped to hide under some 16 wheelers when I went ahead of him to scout our entrance. Arriving I gave the all clear and the whole group stormed to the entrance.

As the group entered the building I was last in. The moment I entered I began to pull out my tripod and attach my camera with the likely knowledge that we had entered without alerting anyone that might be keeping an eye on the area. The group had gone in separate directions, mainly below to Peavey’s Underground Basement. I on the other hand decided to roam the top floors briefly to catch some photos.

I walked up the typical mill steel grate staircases. Up and up I went. Just before I reached the top I stepped on a stair incorrectly causing it to bend out of place. I cursed in a whisper about how operational elevators should be in tip-top shape.

Finally moving on I started taking photos of the conveyor belts atop and the odd rooms (Of which none turned out good, guess I’ll have to go back and get more ). Being satisfied with the amount of pictures I took I quickly headed down avoiding the stair I had broken. I had only been gone for about 10 minutes when I ran into myth at the entry point. Deciding this was as good a time as any I started to have him pose for some good old nifty shots of Peavey. After all that jazz we both head down to join the rest of the group in the basement.

Going down a small flight of stairs I started snapping photos of whatever I pleased. Eventually turning on some lights to show off the lower conveyor belts and tunnels. The tunnels under Peavey are amazing, not only are they of course tunnels, which I love, but they are the very foundation for the mill, being atleast 90 years old if not more, but giving it a very fond uniqueness and of course I love old Limestone Brick Arches that form into tunnels. I cant think of any other Mills that have that extensive of a Limestone Foundation much less tunnels to boot. Anyhow I split off from the group and took squeek with me to find an alternative entrance/exit in case the worst happened and of course more photos.

Splitting off down an adjacent conveyor belt tunnel we roamed a bit until we hit a dead end. We backtracked until we found another conveyor belt tunnel a bit down paralleling the one we had just explored. I found a ladder going up to the next floor and decided to try it. Didn’t budge. Climbing back down me and squeek walked down the tunnel not expecting to find anything different. We reached the end to find a vent of sorts that had a door.  I opened it and found where it led and was excited to find another entrance and possible exit from Peavey.

After all was said and done we decided to quickly explore the outside of the immediate mill that was fenced off. Brute volunteered and the rest we exited via our original entrance. Walking down the road I noticed brute behind a fence and said, “Why aren’t you leaving with us?”, He said he couldn’t find a way out, unknowingly I had locked the door behind him thinking he could get out. After some attempts to get him out I finally just went back and let him back into the mill then resecured the door and left together.

We were walking back through Mill Hell enjoying the chill breeze of November and not really caring about anything in the area like we had when we entered. Passing ADM we waved and said goodbye. Crossing the road into a parking lot we walked deciding to check out what appeared to be some abandoned trucks. Not really checking if anyone was in them I tried opening a door when all my coharts vanished. I followed them thinking someone was driving around. Finally catching up with my fellow explorers on the other side of the lot they told me someone had been in one of the cars by the abandoned trucks and had pulled out a gun and I ended up bitching them out for not telling me when they saw it.

Oh well, that’s life!

We decided we would continue with our celebration to the West Bank Tailraces. Brute decided he was too tired and was going to call it a night. Unfortunately as I write this, he is still not exploring with us, because the next day he broke his foot and had to have like a dozen screws put in. Ouch. To make matters worse I just got a txt from Ludo saying he moved back to New Hampshire. Losing members here fast.

BoLLoCKS!

Sources
1) http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00037.xml
2) http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/naa075.xml
3) http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/ConAgra-Inc-Company-History.html