One woman’s 6-year mission to save her grandfather’s 200 silos

For six years, Marianne May has been chasing a piece of her own family history across the farmland of the American Midwest. According to a report by KCUR, the National Public Radio affiliate in Kansas City, she has identified, photographed and mapped nearly 200 concrete silos built by her grandfather, Frank May, a well-known silo builder in northern Illinois.

Frank May travelled from farm to farm in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, constructing tall cylindrical silos that stored silage, or fermented forage, to feed livestock through the year. As dairy and cattle farming expanded across states such as Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, silos like his became a near-universal feature of family farms, standing beside red barns as symbols of rural life.

Many of the structures he built were made to last for decades, using concrete, brick, stone or wood, and several still stand today as local landmarks. But modern farming has moved on: bunker silos, silage bags and other large-scale storage systems have replaced the old upright towers, and many have fallen into disuse, some torn down over safety concerns, upkeep costs or changing land use.

That is what pushed Marianne May to start travelling across rural communities, tracking down the surviving structures and speaking with the landowners who still live beside them. What began as a personal effort to trace her grandfather’s work has turned into a record of a fading chapter of rural American history, according to the KCUR report.

Preservation experts note that these silos represent more than old farm buildings; they reflect the skills of rural artisans and the agricultural advancements that shaped the Midwest. By documenting where each one stands and the condition it is in, Marianne May’s project ensures that Frank May’s work, and the era it belonged to, will not simply disappear along with the towers themselves.

Wikimedia Commons/by TheTechnician27