By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A documentary using the closing of the St. Joseph Stockyards to illustrate a national trend will be shown to the public for the first time tonight at the Missouri Theater.
The St. Joseph-based video company, Coin In A Log Creative, produced the documentary entitled: Sold! An American Stockyards Story.
“All things change and I guess that’s one of the main themes of this film is things change,” Co-Owner Drew Ames tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “And either you accept it or you don’t.”
Ames says the documentary began with the company filming footage of the day-to-day activities at the stockyards once located near downtown St. Joseph.
Ames says owner Mark Servaes told producers he didn’t want to sell, but it became difficult to keep it up.
“The clientele was getting older. The workers were getting older. The facilities were getting a little more run down. It was going to cost a lot to re-maintain that place. The sewer bills were starting to get kind of crazy,” Ames says. “It was going to need some repairs.”
Ames says the documentary will be shown to the public for the first time at the Missouri Theater, but don’t call it the film’s premiere.
“It’s a sneak peek. It’s not our full premiere for this,” according to Ames. “We’re doing this for St. Joseph. We’re doing it for the people that worked down at the St. Joe Stockyards. We’re doing for the farmers of the area. We want this to be something that we all can enjoy, because we enjoy the Stockyards so much. And we couldn’t think of a better place than the Missouri Theater to show off this product.
The year-long process disclosed an incredible story, according to co-owner Kyler Penland, a story that is bigger than St. Joseph.
“We called it an American stockyards story, because we wanted not just to focus on St. Joseph and describe this picture from a broad viewpoint,” Penland says. “We wanted to tell the heart and soul of St. Joseph, but we want to appeal to a larger audience as well.”
Penland says the company is pleased the first public showing of the documentary will be at the Missouri Theater.
“Our film is a celebration of life of what the Stockyards was,” Penland says. “So, come, enjoy that with us and share your stories, because we’re going to share ours.”
The St. Joseph Stockyards was the last of the Missouri River terminal markets to cease operations, following the demise of the stockyards in Sioux City, Omaha, and Kansas City. It opened in 1887 and, in the 50s, was the 8th largest cattle market in the country. The documentary details the shift away from large stockyards in the selling of livestock in the country and its impact on producers.
The showing begins at 7:30 tomorrow evening at the Missouri Theater.