Nobody's buried here (that I know of ;) - but in a country that once made things, this used to be part of the Allis-Chalmers plant where machines were invented, designed, manufactured, and exported all over the world. Not much left of it now. (a lot of my wasteland series and some of the abandoned factory building photos come from this area.) Meinrad Rumely, a german immigrant, founded a blacksmith shop in La Porte in 1853, which grew into a dominant company through reorganizations and acquisitions. Products included a wide variety of agricultural machines. Rumely's prizewinning thresher later became one of the earliest powered by steam, and thousands of OilPull tractors sold worldwide from 1910-1930. Rumely companies were at the forefront of mechanization in America and world agriculture and had a significant impact on La Porte. At one time Rumely was the second largest machinery factory in the world until the Depression. Rumely's civic & philanthropic activities directly resulted in the construction of a new fire station, St. Joseph's Parochial School, and Holy Family Hospital (a predecessor of the LaPorte Hospital.) By the time of his death in 1904, he was widely referred to as "The Grand Old Man of LaPorte". Allis-Chalmers, another historic manufacturer - hailing back to 1840's Milwaukee, bought Rumely in 1931. When the company shifted to Allis-Chalmers, the tractors were manufactured in Allis, Wisconsin, but the La Porte plant built all the harvesting, planting and farming equipment for a number of years (not to mention WWII M4 & M6 artillery tractors and the Ontos anti-tank vehicle.) Allis-Chalmers was responsible for many innovations in farm equipment and grew to become one of the largest and most diverse manufacturers in North America. However, the changing financial times got to them eventually and they were forced to sell the farm equipment division to K-H-Deutz AG of Germany in 1985. (The LaPorte plant closed in 1984, thousands lost their jobs. When this happened La Porte had a 29 percent unemployment rate.) Duetz sold to AGCO inc. in 1990. After the dispersal of the remaining manufacturing businesses in 1988, Allis-Chalmers maintained an office in Milwaukee until Jan. 1999. In La Porte a mix of empty lots, abandoned buildings, fields of weeds and rubble, strip malls and big box stores divide up the area where Allis-Chalmers once stood. Looks best zoomed full size. Thanks for looking & commenting. Previous Photo: ----------- * RangeRiderRichard's Photo Albums