Patriotism shines with Old Glory on Kestel farm

MANHATTAN, Ill. — It has not been verified, but Dave Kestel’s blood may run red, white and blue.

The Will County farmer always had a strong conviction toward patriotism. His dad, Tony, who died in December 2016, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and Kestel has carried on his parent’s love of country.

It was during the events of 2020 when Kestel took that love to another level.

He spearheaded efforts to have a July Fourth parade in his hometown in 2020, when such COVID-era gatherings were not allowed, and hung a 12-by-18-foot nylon American flag on his corn crib.

He also installed red, white and blue landscaping lights around the front of his house in 2020 that continue to grace the farm today.

Red, white and purple petunias border his house and his mom’s house. There are no blue petunias, so he planted the nearest color.

“The disrespect that people have for our flag” moved Kestel to put a flag on his crib, add more later around the grounds for Independence Day and organize that 2020 parade in Manhattan despite being told by local officials that he couldn’t.

“The burning, and then throwing the flags on the ground, all the riots and the disrespect for the flag and our country,” Kestel said.

“Some of the illegals that are here and are flying the flag from their country, well, if you’re so proud of that flag, why did you come here? Even people here and the division in this country politically, I couldn’t stand it.

“People disrespecting our flag and disrespecting this country just rubs me the wrong way. That’s when I created the Fourth of July parade and put the flag on the corn crib.

“I put a lot of Christmas lights in the yard, too, but some people go bananas over Christmas. I go little bananas on the Fourth of July because I think we should.

“I’m proud of this country, and it irks me to see people disrespect it. I don’t want to say I go overboard. I just feel like I’m just a good American.”

In the week leading up to July Fourth, Kestel’s patriotic display also includes 50 small flags, dozens of standard-sized flags and one atop the grain bin to accompany the permanent crib flag.

Crib Flag

He installed the first flag on the corn crib to surprise his mom, Eleanor.

“I had ordered the 12-by-18-foot nylon flag for something like $250. I got up real early one morning near the Fourth of July. I didn’t want her to know what I was doing, so I was out there at daybreak,” he said.

He attached the flag to 1-by-2-foot boards that were painted red, white and blue and attached it the crib and put small flags in the yard.

“I was putting all these flags in the front yard. My mom got up and she hollered out the window, ‘Wow, that looks really cool.’ I said, ‘You can’t see the best part from the house,’ and she walked out there. She’s like, ‘Oh, my goodness,’ when she saw the flag on the crib,” he said.

That flag lasted about a year and a half before Mother Nature ripped it apart. The notion of installing another large nylon flag on the crib and getting it straight “was a bigger job than I thought because you can’t screw it up — you’ve got to do it right,” Kestel said.

He had also priced new 12-by-18-foot nylon flags and the cost had gone up to around $500. Painting a permanent flag was the answer.

Kestel called his cousin, Matt Boucher, of Dwight, for contact information for Steve Connor of Conman Painting.

“He brought somebody with him that day, got here at 8 or 9 a.m. in the morning. He brought some scaffolding, and at 2:30 p.m., I think I was planting, he called, said they were done, and that he’d just send an invoice,” Kestel said.

“It was a little more than $500, but that’s been up there now since about 2022 and it looks as good as the day he finished it.

“It’s really kind of cool. It wasn’t intended to do that, but it’s kind of become a landmark, and we keep a light on it all the time at night.”

Crib’s History

The crib itself also has a story to tell of its historical significance and ties in with the nation’s fight for freedom.

Prior to construction of the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant, also know as the Joliet Arsenal, in November 1940, there were 450 small farms in the Elwood area near Manhattan that the federal government needed to purchase for the 40,000-acre project. The plant began ammunition production on July 12, 1941.

Kestel’s crib is from one of those farms.

“When they put the in Army ammunition plant, the corn crib was dismantled there, brought up here and rebuilt,” he said.

Field Art

The Kestel farm has also featured other popular displays. He tilled in an 840-foot-long cross in his field in celebration of Easter.

In 2022, he created roughly a 90-by-60-foot flag in foot-deep snow using a Gator utility vehicle to lay out stars and stripes just south of the farm buildings. He used food coloring and applied the appropriate flag colors with a hand sprayer.

Family Farm

Kestel’s patriotic displays are on the family’s centennial farm.

“Grandpa bought the farm here in 1914. This is not the original farm. The original farm is about two miles from here and was bought around 1870, 1890, something like that,” he said.

“I’m fourth generation. My daughter will be the fifth, and then I have a grandson and a granddaughter that will be the sixth generation.”

Kestel raises corn, soybeans and a few beef cattle. He’s been a Pioneer seed dealer for 31 years.

“I no-till, strip-till everything. I also have a couple of fertility plots I’ve been messing with for the last five or six years. I pull soil samples every year and tissue samples every summer to see exactly what’s going on, and these two plots are pretty juiced up,” he said.

“I do a National Corn Growers Association entry. I didn’t hit 300 bushels per acre in 2025, but the year before we tipped the scale of 305.

“That’s nothing for the guys in central Illinois, but up here it’s a big deal, and it’s fun. I’m not competing with the guys in central Illinois. I’m competing with me. I just want to do better than I did last year.

“This is an exiting year for Pioneer, too, with their 100th anniversary. That’s really exciting to be part of it. They’re doing a lot of fun things this summer.”