Ferris Wheels and Accredited Professionals

The Ferris Wheel/Jacksonville story, the one the woman in Worrell Land Services wanted to tell me when I was lost on the road trip, can be long or short.  I’m going with short.  It’s interesting for a while, but once you get the idea it’s not. 

In 1893 W.E. Sullivan, owner of the Eli Bridge company in Roodhouse (a railroad town down the road from Jacksonville) went to the Columbian Exposition and rode the first ever Ferris Wheel and marveled at its construction.  He came home and announced to his wife that he had found the single thing to which he wanted to devote his career.  I imagine the conversation went like this.

“I tell you dear, it’s amazing and thrilling.  I could make a wheel that’s portable and take it to people all around the country to enjoy.”

“Really honey?”

“Yes.  I’m convinced.  To Hell with bridges!”

“W.E. don’t say that, we could be ruined!”

But that’s exactly what old W.E. did, went into debt and in 1907 came up with a design, Big Eli #1, you could put on a train car.  Six men could put it together in a day.  It had ten buggy seats and ran off a gas engine.  He set the first one up right there in the park in Jacksonville where a Sullivan built wheel, Big Eli #17, now stands.  In 1919  he moved his company to Jacksonville.  A Big Eli #1 is on display at that factory, still Sullivan family owned and located in Jacksonville. 

In 1955 the same company invented the Scrambler, which some of you may have thrown up on at the county fair after too much cotton candy, corn dogs, and lemon shake ups.  The local Rotary Club takes care of the Big Eli wheel in the park, now owned by the city of Jacksonville, and you may or may not be able to ride it in the summer once in a while.  Don’t quote me.  I’m not going back to look it up.  I already know more than I want to know about Jacksonville and Ferris wheels.

(Except for this.  They no longer have a double Ferris wheel at the Illinois State Fair, which is a damned shame.  If you find a double Ferris wheel within driving distance, let me know.  I love that feeling when the wheel you are riding changes from the top to the bottom, or vice versa.  I’d like to experience that again.)

So there you go.  You learn something every day.  Worrell Land Services is a whole other thing, and not nearly as easily deciphered.  Here’s how they describe themselves on their web page. 

Worrell Land Services has built a reputation as a leader in rural real estate and farm management in Central Illinois. Satisfied clients attest to our expertise in the following areas:

·        Farm management by accredited professionals who run the day-to-day farming operation, maximize income potential and simplify life for landowners. Our team manages every detail with care, as if it were our own land.

·        Agricultural, recreational, residential and commercial real estate services by a brokerage and auction team with decades of proven results.  We leverage our strong relationships within the local communities and agri-businesses to connect buyer and seller in a way that helps both achieve their goals.

·        Appraisal services that equip landowners with a fair market value for their property.

·        Professional consultation with land experts who listen carefully to each individual need and help landowners make sense of all the options.

At Worrell Land Services, you aren’t just a number.  Your story is unique, your legacy important. Whatever season you’re in – from wrestling with the emotions of selling the family farm to searching for your first home – we can help.  Contact us today to let us know how we can serve you during this season in your life.

I know it’s just promotional material, probably ghost written, but I take stuff like that seriously.  Not once in their self description do they mention farmers.  There’s farm managers, accredited professionals, land experts, land owners, brokerage and auction teams-but no farmers.  How could farmers possibly be left out?

And excuse me, but whenever I see the phrase “this season of your life” I assume that season is winter, and refers to old people.  I could be over sensitive, as I’m going to turn 67 later this year, but I think this is a pamphlet clearly written for people like me.

Who do I mean by ‘people like me?’  Baby boomers who grew up on small farms, left, and never went back.  Farm kids who learned how to make a living some other way because small farm life went away. 

Between 1950 and 1970 the number of farms in the U.S. declined by half and the number of people living on farms dropped from over 20 million to less than 10 million.  My family was part of that decline.

Maybe you and your siblings still own the farm.  Maybe everyone moved away.  Even if they didn’t chances are none of you is working that farm.  It became too small.  The scale and the economy of farming squeezed many of us out.  And so in this “season of your life” something has to be done.  You and your brothers and sisters can’t pass the farm on to all your kids, a big group of far flung cousins. There’s too many of them to share decision making and receive slivers of income from a small acreage. 

Besides that the asset, the land, is very valuable.  Ironically while farm income remains stagnant the price of good Midwestern farm land remains high.  Farmers at the end of their working years find themselves land rich and cash poor.  It costs more than ever, the margins keep getting smaller, commodity prices stay low, and individual farmers assume both more risk and more stress. 

That’s where the nice conference room down the hall at Worrell Farm Services, the one with the soft leather like chairs comes in.  You sit down with a “land expert”, put your family in the hands Worrell Land services, and figure something out.  Either you sell the farm right away or you let them manage it and it’s sold later.  Either way Worrell Land Services, and others who put the business into agri-business, are sure to have a profound effect on America’s landscape.

When this change takes place who buys the land? Who farms it next?  I have a sneaky feeling the farms in the pictures lining the hallway of Worrell Land Services are quickly reduced to an Excel file in the hard drive of an “accredited professional”, and when that file is opened and glowing on a computer monitor the numbers point the way.

If you think guiding a self driving car by GPS through city traffic is doable, think what a snap it will be to remotely drive one combine through an empty forty acre cornfield?  Everything suggests farming is going to an even bigger scale.  What does the future hold for the farms that crowd the two lane roads I travel on my way south and east, and the families that now own them? 

You can learn a lot of things on a road trip, even if they’re just questions.  I find questions about the past easily answered, while answers about the future escape me.  That’s just how it goes.