Armour gates

from page 1 showcase the contents of a cattle car, and one is open to allow visitors to explore it and see historic photos.

A 12-foot raised viewing platform overlooks cattle pens, which include either fiberglass cattle or historical displays. Three bronze cattle sculptures are scattered in open spaces, inviting people to play on them and take pictures. The concept also includes a monument to the short-lived electric suspended monorail train that was installed on the bluff in South St. Paul in 1888.

Funding ideas include commemorative plaques with markers in the shape of a pig’s hoof. Residents could purchase a hoof and have their name added to it, or the name of a loved one. Another idea is to have pig statues placed throughout town, similar to the Peanuts characters featured in St. Paul in the early 2000s.

The Armour Gates are the last remaining vestige of the once bustling stockyards and meatpacking plants, which largely closed in the late 1960s and ’70s. In the past two decades, the city has redeveloped the site into the BridgePoint industrial park. The city owns the 3.9-acre parcel surrounding the gates and has been trying to sell it to a developer. The location of the gates on the triangular-shaped lot makes it difficult to retain them and still meet building size requirements of the site. It has been determined that the gates are not in good enough condition to be moved or rehabilitated.