Iowa's skyscrapers

The subject matter may be tall, but visitors to a new exhibit at the Everly Heritage Museum won't need to strain their necks to get a good look.

"Silos: Our Rural Skyscrapers" will debut Dec. 1-2 during two open houses at the museum. The exhibit features a photo display of grain silos in the Everly area as well as background information on the structures, which are slowly disappearing from Iowa's landscape.

The exhibit was the brainchild of local farmer Mark Scharnberg, who believed it was important to capture this iconic piece of rural heritage before they completely disappear.

"For a lot of us a certain age, silos are a part of our history and our childhood, so Mark thought it would be important to showcase that in an exhibit," said museum board member Connie Goeken. "It may not be interesting to somebody in New York, but for those of us who live here in farm country, they are iconic structures in our lives."

Scharnberg, a museum board member himself, took the photos this summer. He received encouragement from Everly native Mark Gould, an artist who worked at a Denver museum for several years.

"[Gould] thought it would be perfect for our museum and was a great idea, and the rest is history," Goeken said.

In the beginning, Scharnberg was unsure of his credentials to chronicle the silo story in photos, but Gould assured him that the most important part of any exhibit is a strong interest in the subject matter and the desire to tell its story. With the assistance of fellow board member VerDon Schmidt, he set out to photograph many of the area silos still standing and gather stories from the owners about the history of their structures.

The exhibit soon morphed into not only photos of current structures, but also a history of the silo itself and its use for storing grain and silage. Researchers Cindy Fliss, Bev Rinehart and Goeken have assembled a photographic trip through the centuries, tracing the evolution of the silo from a pit in the ground, through the towering structures most commonly associated with modern silos, to the return of on-the-ground storage in the form of bunker or bag silos.

"It took roughly five centuries, but the silo has come full circle," said Goeken.

The exhibit open houses will be held from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Goeken said it will be on display through the summer.

"As we got into this project, it became very interesting to those of us doing the research how things have evolved," she said. "Things have really, really changed from the time our grandparents were farming."