Steve,? Is there a possibility that the original builder might have been Ernie Horr?? A couple of guys teased him, but at his age he had heard it all.? Dick Karnes would verify this but I think he lived in Spokane.? I had hoped to visit with him as he was fading fast, but time wouldn't allow for that.? If I have the wrong individual, sorry!

However it is an excellent looking model so several folks need credit for it.? Back in my youth every little town had a salesbarn, in my home town it was on Thursdays.? Farmer's cattle trucks were all around and if you were selling and if prices were up, the beer joints were filled that day.? Then if you found a good Bull to improve the herd--same thing, good times!? The next day another neighboring town would hold it's sale.? On a hot evening you could hear the cattle hollering into the night.? One by one the yards were shuttered, as the financially weaker ones closed and that tradition was gone along with the farmers who raised the cattle in small batches!

The last time I was noodling around in the old Milw yards in Aberdeen, South Dakota I walked the area,---now just remaining wreckage of those times.? There were feed troughs made of cast concrete.?? That area was perhaps a half mile long.? I don't know if these were gathering points or resting points or perhaps both at season.? You could only ship livestock during a span of several hours, then unload, feed and water them.?

A good friend, & semi-neighbor compiled a fairly elaborate book on the livestock business on the ATSF.? He goes into great detail on how the ATSF handled that business including hauling away the manure and old bedding.? I'm certain that the Santa Fe Technical and Historical society probably still has them FS.?

Bob Werre

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