Port Gibson Oil Works
As one of the earliest cottonseed crushing mills in the U.S., operating continuously from 1882, the Port Gibson Oil Works now sits in Mississippi, collapsing and abandoned. Cottonseed arrived at the mill by train. It was unloaded into seed houses, and fed into the cleaning room of the mill (pictured here) for removal of bolls and sand. Delinting and hulling of the cottonseed produced two by-products: lint (textile product) and hulls (cattle feed).
Seed meats were steam-cooked and placed under a hydraulic press with 5000 p.s.i. Cottonseed oil was extracted, and the remaining "cake" was ground into meal for cattle feed. A 1911 issue of the Imperial Valley Press stated that the mill once had the largest production in the world, pressing more than 40,000 tons a year.
The final owners of the mill, multinational conglomerates Archer Daniels Midland, a public company with $17.8 billion in market capitalization, decided to close the plant in 2002, despite promises to keep the plant open in the distant future after purchasing it. To add insult to injury, the company tried to extract $750,000 from the city of Port Gibson in order for their purchase of the site, despite the fact that the site was hampered by environmental cleanup liabilities. ADM only paid $10,000 a year (yes, $10,000!) in property taxes (I think I pay more property taxes per year than a $17.8 billion dollar company on my simple house...)
As of 2012, a Nicaraugua company puchased equipment from the mill for removal from the plant. The remaining 'antiquated' equipment has no viable reuse, and sits decaying.
Port Gibson Oil Works
As one of the earliest cottonseed crushing mills in the U.S., operating continuously from 1882, the Port Gibson Oil Works now sits in Mississippi, collapsing and abandoned. Cottonseed arrived at the mill by train. It was unloaded into seed houses, and fed into the cleaning room of the mill (pictured here) for removal of bolls and sand. Delinting and hulling of the cottonseed produced two by-products: lint (textile product) and hulls (cattle feed).
Seed meats were steam-cooked and placed under a hydraulic press with 5000 p.s.i. Cottonseed oil was extracted, and the remaining "cake" was ground into meal for cattle feed. A 1911 issue of the Imperial Valley Press stated that the mill once had the largest production in the world, pressing more than 40,000 tons a year.
The final owners of the mill, multinational conglomerates Archer Daniels Midland, a public company with $17.8 billion in market capitalization, decided to close the plant in 2002, despite promises to keep the plant open in the distant future after purchasing it. To add insult to injury, the company tried to extract $750,000 from the city of Port Gibson in order for their purchase of the site, despite the fact that the site was hampered by environmental cleanup liabilities. ADM only paid $10,000 a year (yes, $10,000!) in property taxes (I think I pay more property taxes per year than a $17.8 billion dollar company on my simple house...)
As of 2012, a Nicaraugua company puchased equipment from the mill for removal from the plant. The remaining 'antiquated' equipment has no viable reuse, and sits decaying.