This big (now derelict in 2017) former American Rice Growers rice mill and elevator is located at the junction of the FM 1960 and the SH 321, 2 blocks south of the US 90/OST in downtown Dayton TX. It's a significant landmark, visible for miles around.
The route of the Old Spanish Trail from Orange TX to Houston was designated the US 90 in 1926 when the Auto Trails were reclassified a federal highways and assigned numbers. The US 90/OST passed through several Liberty County towns, including Dayton, where the OST is co-signed with State Highway 146, a north-south highway between Livingston TX (at the US 59) and La Marque (at the I-45). See: (
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Although rice had been grown widely in southeast Texas since the 1860s, it was not until mechanical and process improvements in the 1910s that Liberty County Texas exploded into a center of rice production in the region. Travelers along the OST from the 1920s to the 1960s would have passed by miles and miles of rice fields on their way east from Beaumont to Houston, and would have passed through Dayton on that route.
By the 1940s so many Liberty country farmers grew rice that Dayton farmers needed a local rice mill, as it was no longer cost-efficient to ship the rice by rail to Beaumont for processing. Dayton rice farmers formed the American Rice Growers Co-Op, and in 1949 OST travelers watched from their cars as the Co-Op built a huge rice mill at the FM 1960 and US 90/OST in downtown Dayton.
From the Liberty County Vindicator: (
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"Dayton history group reviews rice farm consolidation in county
Posted: Thursday, June 30, 2016 10:17 am
The Dayton Historical Society took a look Monday night at the rice industry in Liberty County through the eyes of one of the few remaining connections to the grain in the area.
Eileen Stoesser told 46 members and guests about the history of rice in America and southeast Texas, but especially the background of how Liberty County went from more than 100 rice farmers in the 1970s to just four today.
It’s topic easily identified as closer to home for Stoesser. The remaining rice farmers in the county are Ray Stoesser, Neal Stoesser, Grant Stoesser, and Allen Waldrop.
Eileen Stoesser presented a Powerpoint program that told of the introduction of rice to America in 1685 when a ship landed in Charleston, South Carolina from Madagascar for repairs. To thank those who repaired the ship, the captain gave them a gift of gold: a sack of golden rice seed. African slaves taught the colonists how to farm rice and rice even became a unit of currency in 1695.
Very labor-intensive to grow and mill, rice production greatly increased during the 1700 and 1800s on southern plantations and farms because of the availability of slave labor. Improved mechanical farm equipment also aided the growth of rice farming, especially in the 1840s with Cyrus McCormick’s new reaper.
In 1863, David French became the first major rice producer in Texas, his farm located at Beaumont. Until 1892, rice was shipped to New Orleans to be milled; at that time, Joseph Broussard built a mill, also located in Beaumont. The year 1902 was huge for rice farming in Texas. Seito Saibara from Japan came to Texas to teach farmers better techniques. Rice production soared and by 1910, well over 100,000 acres were rice farmed in Texas with 8,000 acres farmed in rice in a 7 mile radius of Dayton.
1915 was an important year in the Stoesser Family and to Dayton: Emil Joseph Stoesser and his wife Tilley came to Eastgate (west of Dayton) from Germany to settle their family and grow rice. Their son Eddie continued to farm and his two sons Jack and Ray did also. The fourth generation of Stoessers now continue the family farming tradition, having over 6,000 acres in production in Liberty and Chambers Counties.
Rice is the most eaten grain in the world, thanks in part to the hard working Dayton farmers, past and present, who have dedicated their lives to this worthy profession.""
But the good times were not to last: American Rice Growers closed their rice mill in 2004, and sold it in 2010, after the mill was damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
See this article from the Houston Chronicle for more on the Dayton Rice Mill: (
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"Dayton rice dryer demolition begins
MELECIO FRANCO Published 5:59 pm, Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The Dayton rice dryer demolition began on Jan. 6 with removal of the building’s rusted metal on the exterior.
Property owner Randy Ripkowski, of Dayton Sand, Clay and Construction, explained that removing the metal is the first step in the demolition process. Much of the metal was damaged during Hurricane Ike.
The original rice dryer structure was built in 1949 and several other concrete structures were later added. The facility hasn’t been used since 2004. Ripkowski acquired the property last year from the Dayton Division of the American Rice Growers.
The metal was being removed to prepare for the next phase, which is tearing down the massive concrete walls of the dryer silos.
Ripkowski said that once all of the metal is removed, he has to purchase a backhoe with shears in order to break and remove the concrete. The piece of equipment is very expensive and Ripkowski said that he will wait a little while to try to find the best price before purchasing.
He noted that nearly all of the debris that will be removed from the site will be recycled such as the scrap tin, iron beams, rebar and crushed concrete.
The Dayton Community Development Corporation will assist Ripkowski with a grant that is approximately 10 percent of the cost of the demolition. The amount of the grant is $46,550 and the estimated total cost of the demolition is $465,500.
The board approved the grant amount for one year and also offered a bonus of $5,000 per month for each month that the demolition is completed early up to $20,000.
The incentive to finish early was offered to help minimize the impact of the demolition process on the city and the surrounding businesses. The offer is void if the demolition takes longer than one year.
The official countdown for the DCDC grant money starts when removal of the concrete begins.
Once the structure is removed, approximately two acres of land will be available for commercial development at the intersection of SH 321 and W. Clayton in the heart of Dayton."
Blasterz note that while the rice dryer is gone, the next phase of demolition has not begin, and in 2017 the property, still owned by Dayton Sand, Clay and Construction, is being used for sand and gravel storage.
The American Rice Growers Co-Op is still in business in Dayton as of 2017.