A lot of junk, but never poor
Two Dowell scrap dealers who line their pockets--and their lives--with rusty steel, your grandparents' iron skillets, scrap cars and discarded Christmas decorations may be two of the richest men on earth.
Steve Cobin and son Brett are surrounded by hundreds of friends, work hard for their communities of Dowell and Elkville and sleep short nights after long days with a hope of doing the right thing tomorrow.
"We don't have to go to the riverboat to gamble," says Steve Cobin. "The gamble is right here."
"One major breakdown on a machine can set you back a month," he says.
Steve is "60 something" and Brett is 43. Generations after the 10 brothers and two sisters born of Czech and Austrian immigrants who spelled their name "Koubeny," there aren't many direct descendants left. "There are a lot of cousins, but me and dad are about the only ones left in this business," says Brett.
In their nearby office trailer lined with hundreds of pictures of fishing trips, vacations, race cars, children and grandchildren there are two black and white pictures in the beginning of an old Cobin's Truck Service truck that someone put a third axle under to handle the weight (below). "We're not sure who that is in the picture," says Steve. One picture shows a "V" painted on the side, maybe for "Victory" as was common during the war. "I wish I had all the stuff on that truck," Steve says with a smile. Junk and appliances were heavier back then.
In the earlier era of Anna "Baba" and "Dadew" Cobin, the junk yard was located in the center of town and lined the Illinois Central mainline.
He remembers decades ago when family members picked local landfills after the Friday burn-offs for copper wire and other things they could sell.
After the Kathleen Mine was closed in 1947, James Cobin purchased the mining property on which the concrete tipple sat and started a scrap metal business (Cobin's Salvage Yard, Inc.). Cobins' first scrap came from the mine buildings and equipment. Between the scrapping activity, decay, and a previous mine reclamation project (conducted in 1999), all of the above ground evidence of the mine has been destroyed or covered up, except for a little bit of the concrete structure.
As things happen, Steve's father broke away from the business and STM Enterprises was started next door with investments here and there in the community. Steve still stores things in the old Dowell School.
"We don't have to go out and look for junk," says Steve. "It finds us."
"I've never been broke--I've come close a time or two," says Steve. "I don't have a lot of money in the bank, but there is money all around here" And finding a few hundred or a few thousands dollars has never been hard.
Years ago Steve's dad told him to get out of the junk business so he went to work at the Consolidation Coal Co. No. 3 Schuline Mine between 1975 and 1982. When that mine closed he was left empty-handed much like the Patriot Coal Co. miners. The scrap business was his insurance policy and he worked both jobs for a long time. He said he got more sleep once he could devote full time to STM.
Steve and Brett have fun and make money surrounding themselves by that notion that "one man's junk is another man's treasure." They pay out thousands of dollars at a time doing that. American Pickers Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz and Danielle can't hold a candle to these original pickers. In the back of one trailer is the doughnut making machine from Geiger' Bakery. Standing nearby are beautiful pieces of wrought iron. On the ground over there is the base of a peddle sewing machine. Over there an old Radio Flyer wagon. Bicycles, the carcasses of a dozen riding mowers, old air compressors and dozens of iron skillets. "This is the stuff we get when the kids clean out the grandparents' house to sell it," says Steve.
A rusty scrap casket now sits in their newly created "Junk Emporium."
But, Steve and Brett are savvy scrappers. "People bring us these propane tanks from their grills. They don't know you can refill or exchange them," says Steve. They pay 50 cents for the steel and get $10 each at auction. They know exactly what a basket of aluminum soft drink and beer cans should weigh so don't fill any of them with sand or leave water in them. They turn away anyone selling railroad iron. "The railroad investigators know its stolen."
Steve does remember scrapping out two yard engines for the railroad one time. "The front bumper weighed 8,000 pounds." Their biggest job was scrapping out the old Murphysboro Brewery. They still do everything from build race cars to rent trailers and car dollies.
Yet even the $3 per pound market price for copper pales by their sense of family and helping everywhere they can, from the town boards to little league programs to youth and medical charities.
These things set the gold standard for us all.