Broom, rope making planned for Half Century show

RANTOUL, Ill. — Visitors can see the process of making a broom and kids can make a rope during the Half Century of Progress Show at the Rantoul National Aviation Center.

“We have some broom corn planted at the show and it’s about waist high,” said John Spannagel, a broom maker.

“It’s a little short for this time of the year because broom corn grows over 12 foot tall, but it may not grow quite that tall because of the dry weather.”

John Spannagel together with Bob Henderson will use several machines at the show to demonstrate the broom-making process.

“After you cut the heads off the broom corn, you run it through the broom corn seeder to take the seeds off,” Henderson said. “After you dry it in a broom corn shed, then you bale it.”

Broom corn is cut green so it has flexibility to make a good broom.

“If you let it dry it breaks off,” Henderson said.

It took Spannagel and Henderson two winters to rebuild the broom corn seeder.

“We went and got this out of the woods and rebuilt it so now it works,” Henderson said. “It has two round cylinders with teeth that strip the seeds off.”

Henderson learned how to drive a tractor in a broom corn field.

“I worked with the broom corn seeder until I was 14 or 15,” he said. “So, I thought everybody knew about broom corn.”

When harvesting broom corn, farmers make broom corn tables in the field.

“You break it over and it takes two rows to make a table,” Henderson said. “You lay the broom corn on the tables so you can go through later with a tractor and wagon to pick up the corn and take it to the broom corn seeder.”

After drying it for a few weeks, the broom corn is baled and then sold to a broom factory.

“We paid people to cut it by the table at $7 to $8 per table in the early ‘60s,” Henderson said. “I was the happiest kid in the world when we quit raising broom corn.”

“In the early 1900s, the U.S. grew more and exported more broom corn than any other country in the world,” Spannagel said. “But by the mid-’60s, it pretty much had gone out of the U.S. because of the intense labor, so 95% of the broom corn is grown in Mexico now.”

At one time it was a good cash corn for U.S. farmers.

“In the mid-’50s, we made enough to buy a new tractor, so at times it was really good,” Henderson said.

“The most broom corn grown now is around Arcola and there is still a broom company there,” Spannagel said. “There were over 300 broom companies in Illinois, but now it’s down to less than a handful and there are still some in Pennsylvania.”

In addition to watching the broom-making process, kids visiting the show can also make a rope to take home.

“It starts about 10 feet long and by the time they wind it up it makes a 9-foot jump rope,” Spannagel said.

“Last year at the Amish Heritage Days, we made over 400 ropes in two days,” he said. “The kids really like it.”

“And they’re proud too because they made the rope,” Henderson said.