SAINT JOSEPH - History of Stockyards and Livestock Exchange Building

Dennis Weisenburger, partial owner of the St. Joseph Livestock Exchange Building, explains how the stockyards in downtown St. Joseph, Mo., operated as one of the country’s largest at the time, and recounts the history of this important era. Visit www.angus.org to learn more or to watch other I Am Angus segments.

[@GEROW1963]

Great Video 👍

[@BillyLapTop]

I lived in the north end of St Joe over 50 years ago and recalled how when the wind would shift, the smell of the stockyards covered the whole city. I also recall all the dead animals in the streets where the unloading was done. Some died on the way in and were just cast aside. In the warmer weather they would become bloated in short order. There was no rush to clean them up. Every night on the local news they would give the numbers of how many animals were processed that day. Wages at the yards were very good, exceeding 3 dollars an hour then. Different specialties got different rates. All this was just a fact of life back then.

[@sweetmizery5]

Great memories

[@WilliamLawsonN-ut7yd]

Hello my pretty friend, how are you. i am sure nobody will ever pass by your profile without saying hello because your posts are so delightful. Sincerely apologize for bothering you by the way, I'd love to get to know you but we're not friends yet. Hope you don’t mind??

[@cdub4693]

My grandfather worked there for 40 years.

[@davehughesfarm7983]

I was the last of the generation that got to experience all this..Started hauling hogs there at 15 years old in 1990 for dad and grandpa..Granpda and great uncle also sold cattle there as I grew up.. Bought sheep there a few times...Was at some of the very last cattle sales....Its all gone..Bygone days.

[@jerrysullivan8424]

As a boy, I loved playing in the stockyards, catching pigeons off of the rafters before they finally tore the whole yard down, I also would sneak in the horse barns with friends where they auction off horses and bareback ride a few of them, before they tore down the swifts building we would sneak in the empty warehouse and have forklift races. this was in the late 60s early 70s. before the internet, when kids were kids. LOL! Then there was the pool hall where the old men played poker for money in the backroom. I was too young to know about cat houses or red lights, there were a few of them there also. Joe Town at one time was wide open to vice, long before Las Vegas. It was easy for young people to get an older person to buy beer or spirits for us. Some of the stores did not check IDs back then, Life was good coming of age as a young man in old Saint Joe, I grew up in the South end much of my boyhood, when I am up that way to visit, I notice that it does not even feel like the area that I lived in as a boy. The truth is " You really can't go home." but the good memories live within our hearts.

[@jerrysullivan8424]

I was raised in the south end at the time that it was dying and the city was moving east.

[@marylilly7747]

Thanks Dennis W. for this information on the stock yards area. I have followed stories of the stock yard building, and honestly, was hoping it could have been purchased and renovated as a historical building. I had not been inside the building, but wish I could have seen it all? Again thank you for the interesting information!

[@cjeffers84]

This needs restoration so much history

The building has been torn down and is now gone...

[@kdw75]

I am in shock at the state of that building. I used to ride along on deliveries with my father, as a young man, as we own a print shop. They were a good customer for decades. Though things had slowed down, I still remember it being a busy place in the 1980s. The last time I was in there was probably the the mid 90s, and there were only a few people still operating in it. One of our press operators fathers worked as a meat packer at Swift.

[@karljacobson1575]

My dad sold fat cattle in 50 and 60 s there. I would get to go with him!! Colt wall and bethel was a commission house I remember. And dug dale was a packing house that bought my dads stock !! I remember a steak house there where we would eat!!! Fond memories of all that....

[@davehughesfarm7983]

Oh yes! My grandpa also sold through colt wall bethel..I rember filling out the book unloading hogs or cattle..

[@stevemccoy8138]

I hauled Cattle out of there in the 1980s.

[@hickokhaley]

I think this is the stockyard my Grandfather Harim Blair worked at until he died. Also my Uncle Elbert Blair worked there. He was a foreman.

[@august19621]

A very interesting fellow

[@lanesmithh]

I've been there

[@davehughesfarm7983]

Damn depressing,,The old days are gone..

[@theassassin-fj4sh]

the Stockyards has been abandoned since I was little

[@joecurry6102]

My mom's an orphan from Missouri and she named me Joe so figured I'd search St Joseph MO tonight

[@AngusAssoc]

Thanks for sharing Joe! That's our home base here at Angus and it is a town FULL of history.

[@theassassin-fj4sh]

0:53 it doesn't look like that anymore

[@alisonlee3314]

The whole area is now being developed...and this beautiful building has been rescued.

[@AngusAssoc]

That's right Alison! We are so happy to see that.

[@alisonlee3314]

Angus TV Happy for you all. Good luck for the future from the UK x

[@thefranks8726]

I don’t live in the area anymore, but I’m glad that people care about these historical buildings. What kinds of things are being done to restore this place?

[@IncarnateParanormal]

my great uncles Loren and Cecil Baker used to run cattle out of there

[@cloudbroken]

I always liked the look of this building, so eventually I looked it up in the National Register of Historic Places. I had a hard time believing there was ever so much business surrounding it. Sad to see the state of it, but I think it's better off demolished. It'd be extremely costly for someone to restore it and I don't think there would be much of a return, especially not the way South end is today.

[@cdub4693]

No longer standing

[@mikuz7565]

3:59 minute He jokes. Like awful smell is Ok for south people or it's funny. South still stinky. Never nobody got use to such smell. All south people complain about awful stinky smell. But who cares about people? It's not Ok.