"It finally happened!  The long look-for "blow-up" of the town's 24,000 gallon water pressure tank took place last Saturday afternoon at  2 o'clock, and one minute later the town's water system was at a standstill.

     The explosion tore out one complete segment of the tank's steel plates, and put a hole in the north wall of the cement block building large enough to drive a truck through.  Cement blocks were hurled out into the street, and some of the smaller pieces went clear across the road.  Fortunately, nobody was near, and nobody was hurt.

     A consulting engineer has been retained by the town council for the purpose of securing preliminary information for the erection of a water tower and water tank.  All this will take time, and there is no question but that several months will pass before Ellsworth will again have a satisfactory method of water distribution."

Dalbey's Station - 1941

This 1941 image shows Clifford Dalbey standing in front of his DX Gas Station 
at the intersection of  Highway 175 and DeWitt Street.  Besides offering Free Air, 
the signs advertise the products Kendall Oil, Firestone tires, and Champion spark plugs.

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1942

Published in the January 28, 1942 issue of the Ellsworth News was the news article seen below.   Also in the same issue, the advertisement seen to at right was found on Page 5.

This picture from later in 1942, shows the Trinity Lutheran Church.  The photo was taken from the water tower, looking north.  This church structure was replaced in the early 1950s with the present church building.

A group of good people got together and purchased the Ellsworth Park with one check (seen above).  Mr. Snow, a former Hamilton County Superintendent of Schools owned this block of Ellworth and consented to have it purchased by this group of people.  Mr. Snow allowed it to go for the taxes owed.

     A park for Ellsworth is now a realization.  Mayor Lande and the town council have been negotiating with the Hamilton county board of supervisors for several months for the possession of a block of county owned land in the north part of town, and late last week the officials were notifed that the deal is ready to be completed. 

The block of land is on the east side of main street, a block and a half north of the Lutheran church.  The purchase price from the county is $150.00, and a ditch assessment tax of approximately $18.00.

     On Monday of this week, Gaylord Rorem and Mayor Lande made up a subscription list which the latter circulated among the business men and at the present time almost $200.00 has been raised for the purchase of the ground and for the work that will need to be done to get the park started.  The subscription list is still open and the mayor urges all who wish to contribute to call at his store and register their names and the amounts they wish to give.

     The park will cost the taxpayers nothing.  The cost of the land and the improvements at present, will be made by voluntary contributions of cash and perhaps at some time in the future by labor donations. 
With everybody in town behind this improvement, Ellsworth in a few years will have a park equal to any in this part of the state.

     A Central Cooperative Turkey Producers of Ellsworth was organized in 1944.  Many other area farmers joined in, and by 1952 there were 70 turkey raisers concentrated in a 10 mile radius of Ellsworth.  At a peak, there were about 3 1/2 million pounds of turkey produced annually.  Eventually, the business was sold to others, and later, the processing plant is the home of Uncle B's Bagel factory.  This first started in Ames and was moved into Ellsworth's vacant turkey processing buildings.

In 1966, the Louis Rich turkey processing plant has announced that it would cease operations.  Local farmers investigated how they could manage to keep it open, but this was the last turkey processing plant to serve Hamilton County.
 

Ellsworth's newest industry, a turkey processing plant, began to take shape last weekend with the breaking of the ground for the new building.

The new industry, the Central Cooperative Turkey Producers, will process turkeys for the market - buying them live from the raisers, and putting them through the plant to be killed, drawn, packed, and shipping to the city markets.  The organizers of this new industry comprise the turkey raisers in this community.  At a meeting held last week, officers and a board of directors were elected.   The organization will be governed by seven directors, of whom the following are the offcers:   Dwayne Hill, president,   Scott Brinton, vice-president,  Wayne Olson, secretary-treasurer.   The other four directors are Elston Danielson, Frank Doyle, Howard Pearson and Raymond Thompson. 

The organization will incorporate with a capital stock of $50,000.00.  This detail is now in the hands of the attorneys of the group.

The location of the new plant will be immediately west of the Thompson Hatchery building with track facilities on the Chicago & North Western railway.   The building at present, will be 50 feet wide and 100 feet deep, one story, of block construction with curved roof.

Friday afternoon and Saturday the big trees on the site were blasted down and moved out of the way.    Then, into Monday, Ralph Olsen’s caterpillar bulldozer moved and leveled the dirt.   At the moment, work is going ahead with the preliminary work on the foundations and cement work.

All equipment has been purchased on the eight-week delivery bases and it is planned and hoped to be in operation by October 1.

According to recent survey, there are approximately 150,000 turkeys in the vicinity this season.  Although at this very moment, all plans are in the early stage, it is judged the plant will employ from twenty to forty persons, depending, of course, upon the number of live turkeys delivered to the plant.

Plans for further expansion are in mind, but these will not be considered until the first unit of the plant is built and in operation.