GTA is the anagram for Grain Terminal Association, once one of the largest grain handling and marketing associations in the world. This particular elevator was completed in the fall of 1952. We know that the nearby General Mills elevator burned and a new one built at the same time as this one. In a
news article dealing with the General Mills elevator fire it is stated that no other buildings were burned, meaning that this elevator was a new one, not a replacement.
Stated to hold 50,000 bushels, judging by its appearance, the sheet steel sided wood cribbed elevator appears to be no longer in use. Apparently this elevator is no longer owned by GTA, as in 1983 GTA and North Pacific Grain Growers, merged to form Harvest States Cooperatives and the name on the elevator remains "GTA". Fifteen years later, in June 1998, Cenex (the old Farmers Union Central Exchange of South St. Paul, Minnesota) and Harvest States merged to form a new cooperative called Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives.
Following is the story of the beginning of the Grain Terminal Association.
The National Farmers Union (NFU) was organized in 19O2 at Point, Texas, to be a non-partisan body representing the interests of farmers in America. The organization worked to provide cooperative grain elevator facilities, relief to drought victims, price protection, farm coops, insurance services, lobbying, and educational programs for members. In 1926 NFU took over the properties of the Equity Cooperative Exchange, a terminal marketing coop founded in 1911 and managed by M.W. Thatcher. From this beginning the Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association (FUGTA), with main offices in St. Paul, Minnesota, grew to be one of the largest marketing cooperatives in the world, at one time handling ten percent of all wheat produced in the United States.
The Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association (GTA or FUGTA), a cooperative grain marketing organization of Midwestern farmers, began operations on June 1, 1938. Its origins, however, go back much farther into the nineteenth century with farmers' rebellions against low prices, mis-grading of grain, false weights, buyer collaboration, and excessive dockage and transportation costs, which resulted in their first attempts at cooperative action. By 1916 many farmers believed they were losing an estimated $55 Million per year because of inequities in the marketing business. To combat these perceived inequities, a group of them organized the Equity Cooperative Exchange in 1908 to market their grain. The Equity and other small farmer-run cooperatives faced widespread opposition from railroads, banks, grain companies, and many city newspapers. The Equity formed the St. Paul Grain Exchange in 1914 (they were not allowed to trade on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange) and built their own elevator on the Mississippi River in St. Paul. In the 1920s the Equity was forced into receivership and in 1926 the Farmers Union Terminal Association (FUTA) was formed to carry on the farmers' grain cooperative movement. This association worked to enact uniform inspection regulations and honest weighing practices at both local and terminal elevators. In the 1930s FUTA became affiliated with the quasi-governmental Farmers National Grain Corporation. In 1938 this corporation ceased operations and GTA took its place
From the GTA