Wis. Company Reclaims Wood From Huge Grain Elevator

Once the largest grain elevator in the world, the Globe Elevator in the Superior, Wisconsin harbor is being recycled.

The company Wisconsin Woodchuck is deconstructing the huge structure and salvaging the antique wood and nails, which are in high demand.

When the structure was built in the 1880s, it towered 150 feet in the air and stretched for hundreds of feet along the waterfront. It was built using lumber from the forests of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The structure is mostly made of white pine, eroded by more than 100 years of flowing grain. The wood has done all the swelling, shrinking and warping it's ever going to do making it rare and expensive.

A 25-foot-long, 120-year-old, 12-by-14-inch beam has a market value of about $1,000.

The structure contains six million board feet of wood.

Some of the wood is being used in the new addition to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.