The Last Days of Mount Rainier’s Urban Corn Silo

For 17 years, a 20-foot corn silo stood next to a parking lot in Mount Rainier.

Just off Bunker Hill Road near the farmer’s market, a group of environmentalist residents installed the Urban Grain Bin to store corn for a type of pellet stove.

The corn was grown especially for the Mount Rainier silo and another in Takoma Park using no pesticides by a farmer in Mount Airy, MD, and delivered in a truck that ran off recycled cooking oil. Even the corn stalks, where most of the carbon is captured, were tilled back into the soil.

The kernels, which were dried to about 11% humidity, burn hotter than wood, oil, or gas and are carbon-neutral overall, making them popular among environmentalists and parts of the Midwest where corn is grown.

Hyattsville resident Jim Groves, who served as president of the corn co-op at one point, told the Hyattsville Wire that the Takoma Park silo was the first in the country to be located in a city solely for use in corn stoves.

“I started burning corn in probably 2003 or 2004,” he said. “At that time, corn was very cheap so the cost for 35 pounds of corn was under $2 and would last at least 10 hours.”

At its peak, the Mount Rainier co-op had up to 60 members and went through 40 tons of corn a season. Membership dues went to maintaining the silo and all work was volunteer.

Eventually, the economics behind the corn silo changed. Increasing use of ethanol as an additive to gasoline raised the price of corn, while stoves that used pellets made of wood shavings and other byproducts became more popular.

With fewer members, the Mount Rainier corn co-op shut down in 2025, and the two bins were shipped off for use on the Mount Airy farm.

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