SOURCE:
PIONEER PRESS
Going, going, gone
City looks to the future as South St. Paul's last stockyard closes
By Nick Ferraro
nferraro@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 04/11/2008 09:09:24 AM CDT
An era ends today in South St. Paul.
The Central Livestock Association will conduct its final auction at the storied stockyards, closing a door on a way of life that for years has faded as the working-class city strives to create a new identity.
The yards, which date back to 1886, once spanned 160 acres and provided a livelihood for thousands of workers in the livestock industry. Farmers, yardmen, buyers, sellers, butchers, meatpackers, truckers and bankers all worked together to make the market one of the nation's largest.
But with just 27 acres left, the yards had become a shadow of a once-booming industry that peaked in South St. Paul in 1968, with a record 3.2 million head of cattle, hogs and sheep traded.
Last year, about 240,000 cattle, hogs and sheep went through Central Livestock, which employs 35 workers.
The closed stockyard will be built over with offices, warehouses and industrial buildings as part of the BridgePoint Business Park, a development central to the city's revival.
But for many in the city of about 20,000 residents, the closing of the yards is
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