By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A celebration of a milestone anniversary and a mural unveiling as Albaugh commemorates not only its 45 years in business, but the history of St. Joseph.
Albaugh purchased the old St. Joseph Stockyards to expand its operations, building a skybridge across Stockyards Expressway from its manufacturing facility to its shipping warehouses on the land purchased from the Stockyards.
It’s not just any skybridge, according to founder Dennis Albaugh, but one with a mural celebrating St. Joseph history.
“The mural that we put over the road that’s kind of a give back to the city of St. Joe,” Albaugh tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “We went back to the city of St. Joe 32 times and asked for different building projects. And the city of St. Joe, I can’t thank them enough. They’ve been proactive and worked with industries, not work against industries. It’s not that way in all the cities that we operate in.”
The mural comprises 64 hand-painted panels depicting St. Joseph history from the Pony Express to the St. Joseph Stockyards. Artist Sam Welty painted the mural.
Albaugh also salvaged a bit of St. Joseph history.
Albaugh says the company headquarters is the old cashier building used by the stockyards to pay cattlemen and hog producers, who sold their livestock across the street.
“We probably spent three times more than it would have cost us to tear this building down and put up new,” Albaugh says, adding razing the building to construct new was discussed. “I said, ‘No, this is part of the history of St. Joe, Missouri. We’re leaving this building.’ We’re happy. We use a lot of it today. It works very good to have customers come in and see it and it’s kind of the old history of what was here in St. Joe.”
The building contains the cashier windows, vaults, and other remnants from a bygone era.
Albaugh says he never envisioned the company growing as it as and says it would have been possible without a quality workforce.
“The biggest thing that I’m real pleased with is we’re able to get good help at St. Joe, Missouri,” Albaugh says. “That help staff is unbelievably good down here. You can run a business with good help. It’s hard to run a business if you don’t have the good staff behind it.”
Albaugh employs around 240 workers.
Albaugh manufacturers generic pesticides, herbicides, and other crop products sold throughout the United States as well as Canada with some sold in Mexico.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.