Route 66 travelers driving west into Yukon, Okla., typically have been greeted by the huge grain elevators and a big lighted sign, “Yukon’s Best Flour.”
Now the Daily Oklahoman reports that the elevators are up for sale for $1.75 million. The reason? Urban sprawl around Oklahoma City has greatly reduced wheat acreage in the region. When less wheat is being grown, you have less revenue coming into the grain elevator.
“I know a lot of Yukon residents are really going to miss it,” said Sandy Meier, executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, noting that she bought cottonseed mulch from the co-op every spring for landscaping.
Meier said Yukon leaders hope the elevator — or at least the farm store — will be bought by someone who reopens it.
“Hopefully, they’ll sell it and it will remain as the (center of) our downtown agriculture business,” she said.
Carl T. Avey, who has the Yukon property listed with Thomas Lay Realtors, said the types of property for sale in Yukon — the elevators, warehouses and a retail store, all straddling Main Street, which is historic Route 66 — should make it appealing to different types of buyers.
However, it probably won’t be appealing to another grain-buying and storage business.
“We’re hoping they wouldn’t have to tear those down, but if the new owner wouldn’t want them, they could be flattened,” Avey said.
There’s no word on what would happen to the “Yukon’s Best Flour” sign, which was restored a few years ago and is lighted nightly.
What if we got Garth Brooks — who grew up in Yukon — to appeal to his fans?
There are, like, a kajillion people who love Garth Brooks. If he put something on his Web site and maybe sent out a few press releases asking his fans to kick in a buck or two toward the preservation of his hometown’s most prominent landmark, he could probably take its status from “endangered” to “bought, restored and maintained in perpetuity” in a matter of hours.