A final farewell was bid last week to the old Armour/Swift, Monfort/JBS building
By Per Peterson
The silence inside the holding area in the old Armour/Swift, Monfort/JBS hog station today is disrupted only by the high-pitched chirping of barn swallows. The air is stale, typical of an old, worn-down farming business that hadn’t seen the shadow of a hog farmer for five years. The pens that would hold up to 80 pigs at a time are empty, save for sporadic bursts of bird droppings.
And while the future of the old building that still houses a pair of scales that tell a story of how things changed over time remains an unknown, its past was celebrated last Wednesday when its last full-time manager, Dick Williams, returned to his former haunts for one last look during an open house that also allowed others to say goodbye to the old place.
“I was here a lot of times with my father selling pigs,” said veterinarian Joe Brockway as he walked out of the Swift building for the last time Wednesday. “I’m not sure there’s anything here anybody can salvage. It’s about time for it to come down.”
Dean Faltenson was another visitor to the building last week. He said it was interesting to walk through the station and the office.
“It’s getting in a little disrepair,” Faltenson remarked.
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.