Nearing the end of the harvest season, a farmer pulls into the Ag Depot parking lot northeast of Bozeman’s downtown to drop off grain. On this quiet, crisp morning the producer slowly sips his coffee as his grain is rapidly unloaded. It’s a scene right out of a 1950s movie, but with structural updates to Ag Depot’s operation over the years, the business continues to fill a modern need for producers. Hugging the railroad tracks, the block of East Mendenhall Street now occupied by Ale Works, Ag Depot, and the BG Mill has long been a site for agriculture processing and distribution.
A wide range of Native peoples, including the Séliš (Bitterroot Salish), Qlispé (Pend d’Oreille), Ktunaxa (Kootenai), Pikuni (Blackfeet), and Tsistsis’tas (Northern Cheyenne), have been in relation with the Gallatin Valley for thousands of years. The first white settlers began more permanently occupying Bozeman in the 1860s. On their search for gold in the region, John Bozeman, William Beall, and Daniel Rouse first platted the town of Bozeman. Their map, showing how parcels would be divided, formed the basis for how land in Bozeman is still bought and sold today, including lots at the corner of Rouse Avenue and Mendenhall Street.
As more families moved to Bozeman in the early 1890s, many grew food for their households and communities. This necessitated the construction of processing infrastructure such as grain elevators, mills, and canning operations. As Phyllis Smith wrote in her book Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley: A History,
“In 1920, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley seemed a stable, thriving community. The war was over, the influenza epidemic had abated, population growth was slow but orderly, and abundant crops of potatoes, wheat, and peas promised good times ahead.”
Many homesteaders initially focused on growing produce, but they quickly realized that local soil conditions and climate were well-suited for grain production. The construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1882 further encouraged development of the agricultural economy.
While many of these food businesses are no longer operational, the remnants of this time remain, often as sagging buildings with cracked doors and shuttered windows and through stories held by Bozeman’s older generations.
“In 1920, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley seemed a stable, thriving community. The war was over, the influenza epidemic had abated, population growth was slow but orderly, and abundant crops of potatoes, wheat, and peas promised good times ahead.” —Phillis Smith
Edna Tracy White and husband J.J. White (pictured) were the owners of the BG Mill in the 1920s. Courtesy of the Gallatin History Museum.
BG Mill Shifts
In the early 1920s, Edna Tracy White and her husband, J.J. White, both worked as farmers and proprietors of an early brickyard, freighting business, and feed and seed store. They sold Rouse lots 19–28, where the BG Mill currently stands, to the Northern Pacific Railroad for $10,500. According to the Montana Historic Property Record, during the 1920s the railroad built structures consisting of a small grain elevator, delivery bay, and scale room. This site was ideal for a grain operation because a spur line connecting to the larger railroad network ran directly through the property. The facility created a central location for farmers to offload their grain for distribution to other areas of the state and region.
Farmers selling to the BG Mill drove up a small gravel incline into a large interior space where operators weighed and unloaded their grain, which was stored in silos for future distribution. Trains would pull up to the large funnel hanging off the primary elevator for loading. By the early 1920s, area residents had built several other small grain elevators throughout Bozeman.
While multiple railroad companies owned the land housing the BG Mill over the years, the buildings were owned and operated by an array of businesses. During the early 1900s the Montana Elevator Company was the largest operator of smalltown grain elevators in the state. The Rouse facility was one of the company’s later additions and integrated period advances in grain elevator engineering, making it one of the few steel bin elevators of that time built in Montana.
Over the years, a few additional structures were added to the land, such as office space and what is presumed on the Montana Historic Property Record to have been retail space for the Montana Elevator Company. In 1987, the land was sold to Montana Rail Link. By 1971, the elevator transitioned ownership to Cargill, a multinational food corporation still in existence today, and later it was acquired by Richard Boylan and Jim Grey, who operated B-G Grain at the facility. B-G Grain continued operating until the mid-1990s, wholesaling and shipping malting barley produced by local farmers, much of which was sold to Anheuser- Busch.
Since the mid-1990s, the building changed ownership several times: it was owned by someone who cleaned wheat at the facility, then was purchased by two women intending to turn it into an art gallery. Developers subsequently bought the property and, most recently, the City of Bozeman approved the construction of a 19-unit luxury condo complex that will replace the BG Mill. According to the Bozeman Real Estate Group, which currently has individual units listed for sale ranging in price from just over $2 million to over $5.5 million, construction is likely to begin sometime in 2025 or 2026.
“According to the City, the existing buildings are no longer habitable and cannot be structurally rehabilitated in a way that complies with zoning or building code,” Bozeman Real Estate Group says on its website. “The [developer] is planning on doing selective demolition, where materials on the historic building are salvaged and repurposed.”
Ag Depot Stays Rooted
After the historic Story family built an empire of grain processing and cattle enterprises throughout the Gallatin Valley, much of their land and infrastructure was passed down to their descendants. In 1948, Mayo Story Dean purchased Rouse lots 15–18, the current Ag Depot property, from her sister-in-law, Velma Story, and brother, Nelson Story III, for $20,000. In the 1950s a modern grain elevator was built and a small grain elevator from across the street was moved onto the property.
Over the years, the property’s ownership transitioned from Farmers Union Grain Terminal to Cargill to General Mills, all while staying engaged in the purchase and distribution of grain. In 1992, the current owner, Ag Depot, purchased the property. Since then, Ag Depot has focused on a variety of business endeavors including steamroll manufacturing; processing of corn, oats, and barley for resale to dairies; bagging and selling animal feed; and buying and selling grain.
Ross Grubb currently owns Ag Depot and has been involved with the business since the 1990s. He describes how the company has transitioned its focus as the farming industry experienced change. Their main business now involves buying and selling malting barley, and they offer crop production services to farmers which include providing recommendations for how and when to apply fertilizers. While Ag Depot used to sell animal feed to small-scale farmers, many of them being dairies, as the dairy industry became more consolidated and the average herd size increased many of those farmers transitioned to mixing feed themselves.
As Grubb guides me along a tour of the property, he explains that his favorite part of the job has remained largely the same. “Building friendships with farmers and buyers that have a strong base of faith and integrity is still what brings me a lot of enjoyment,” he says. “We still do a lot of business on a verbal commitment.” As we walk through the warehouse, now used as storage space, I catch glimpses of ghosts of tenants past. From one wall hang bike saddles, holdovers from when Owenhouse used the warehouse for storage. As we continue to walk the property, Grubb points out another warehouse that was once occupied by NorthWestern Energy.
Grubb works hard to build trusting relationships and feels strongly that “the people are really the business.” He speaks fondly of current and past employees. He mentions Don Sures, a longtime employee, whose willingness to stay as the property transitioned through owners “really kept the business alive.”
Looking ahead, Grubb hopes to keep Ag Depot in operation well into the future. As the business has evolved, his son has increasingly become more involved.
