Old Wisconsin Barns

[pk]

I have a huge love for old barns. The ones that look as if there is a ton of history behind the old boards. It's great to drive down a winding country road to come up on a huge barn just sitting on the side of the road as if it was just waiting to tell it's stories.

For those that understand the 'feelings' that you get when you find a great barn to look at and would like to share the road, town, maybe pics you may have taken please do so. I would love to hear 'barn' stories also. By doing this we are all doing our share of preserving and sharing part of Wisconsin history.

Remember once an old barn falls, gets destroyed, or taken down, something more than an old building is gone. A piece of the history of the country side is missing and in it's place a new 'modern' building will form causing the whole scene to change.

Anyone care to share?

pk

[keith]

A great sentiment, pk!

Like covered bridges, these old structures have a lot of character.

I saw the one closest to my house go up in flames. Only a block and-a-half away, across cornfield, the old and unkept barn burned fast. Whenever a paint or fuel can lit up, it looked like fireworks. I miss the place. It was just kitty-corner across part of the cornfield from me. Now there are near-million dollar homes between me and where it stood.

It was heartening to see a structure that was falling down in Black River Falls get rebuilt. The Amish community there did the rebuilding, and a beautiful job of it, too.

With all this sentiment, I'm kind of hesitant to say that the first thought that comes to mind when I see a barn along the highway or freeway - indeed, when I first read your post - is the idea of theBubbler.com logo in ten foot letters across the side of the place. Maybe it would eventually become a 'sentimental favorite' in time, too.

Regards,
Keith

[pk]

I think my love of old barns stems back to my childhood. My mom's brother/wife owned a large farm and had a huge barn around the Bristol/Burlington area. Some of my best memories was going to family reunions at their home and getting to 'visit' the barn. They had one old mean bull we love to check out and all the kittens.

If my memory is correct, their barn was listed as the largest wooden barn in Wisconsin. As I said, it was huge. Until the tornado came through one year and flattened it to the ground and threw pieces of it everywhere. It was a terrible sight to see this once magnificent barn now scattered and broken in pieces and reduced down to rubble.

They were able to reconstruct the barn but no where near the size it was. So I always thought of it as part of my childhood and part of Wisconsin history left behind.

[j10asen]

Houses and barns
living quarters
in the city and farm

a place to shelter from elements
cold,wind,snow and rain
a place of elation
a place of pain

where we hold our past
where we sustain our present
where we plan for the future
will it remain releveant

the memories of our life
as it unfolds
a liftime to make
in seconds can explode

just as life has it's cyle
and we all return to clay
what we build today
will someday decay

for what we take from the earth
back to it will be reclaimed
for every season has it's purpose
all under heaven where it always remains

stoney rohde





I have always loved farmscapes. Regardless of the season a farmscape has it's

beauty. In the spring ,it is the fresh raked soil. In summer it the crops

growing in a patchwork quilt. It the fall it's the harvesting. In the winter

its the snow coverd furloughed earth.

I am still trying to organize both my digital and film work. I know I have some very old shots in black and white and if I come across them I will scan and share them here.
For now, here is a shot taken in lower Michigan in the summer of 2006. This comes form a rural area outside Detriot and is an old Horse Barn(stables) that is no longer used.
I did not grow-up on a farm or near a farm but to me they do represent honest hard work and self-sufficiency.

[pk]

Even though it is not a Wisconsin Barn, it still is a great barn and wonderful picture:

http://www.thebubbler.com/modules.ph...ewtopic&t=2840

thanks j10asen.

pk

[j10asen]

Here is a very old photo taken in the days when I processed my own black and whites. I am guessing 30 years ago but I know where it ws taken. Between Wild Rose and Wautome on Hwy 22.

[pk]

Here is a very old photo taken in the days when I processed my own black and whites. I am guessing 30 years ago but I know where it ws taken. Between Wild Rose and Wautome on Hwy 22

Great picture. I always enjoy your pics you post for all of us to view.

Just wondering, you took this picture 30 years ago, is the barn still standing now?

[j10asen]

Originally Posted by pk

Great picture. I always enjoy your pics you post for all of us to view.

Just wondering, you took this picture 30 years ago, is the barn still standing now?

I could not say. I have not been that way in at least 15 years, since my folks moved back to Menasha from Wautoma. There was a time I would be on hwy 22 every weekend. I spent alot of time Waushara county.
Thanks for the compliment pk, I do like share my photos on theBubbler, my fovorite spot on the net.
Just imagine if the photo is 30 years old, how o l d I must be!!!!!!!!

[pk]

I have not been that way in at least 15 years, since my folks moved back to Menasha from Wautoma. There was a time I would be on hwy 22 every weekend. I spent alot of time Waushara county.

We live in the Kenosha County close to the south/east corner of the state. I'll have to look up where this area is (Waushara county)

pk

[pk]

Just imagine if the photo is 30 years old, how o l d I must be!!!!!!!!

35?? lol (you started young)!

really, you must remember, 'you are as old as you feel'..or something like that.
:lol:

[j10asen]

This shot was taken in April of 2005 at Blue Mound State Park. I can Imagine it must be a very popular because of the many activies it has to offer including a swimming pool.. We were in Madison for a Sting concert ( it was a great show ) and took a side trip to this park. Someday we will camp here.

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/...fic/bluemound/
Back to shot.

Here is a typicl farmscape that I engoy as I travel around this great state.In the distance it appears someone may be burning off a field.

So this is my barn shot for the week. I have to get back to repairing my wife's PC, Installing. new drive and cloning the old drive to the new drive. I hope.

[PatW]

I too, am saddened by the abandoment and decay of these wonderful structures. Since I was a child, I often thought if I was rich I would spend my millions on fixing up these old barns and bring back their historical beauty.
Even now, my family farm once stood proudly boasting registered Guernseys, a huge white farmhouse and stately red barn and white board fence on each side of the driveway leading to a circular drive surrounding the large oak trees in front of the house. The fun, the hard work and life's lessons were many on this farm.
It now stands almost ghostly looking. 200 acres is now 7. The woods, the flowing well, the "marsh", the old sledding hill is no longer a part of it.
My brother & his family still live there, but his children who will inherit it some day will not want it. They will sell it as soon as they can....and I am deeply saddened.

[pk]

Even now, my family farm once stood proudly boasting registered Guernseys, a huge white farmhouse and stately red barn and white board fence on each side of the driveway leading to a circular drive surrounding the large oak trees in front of the house. The fun, the hard work and life's lessons were many on this farm.
It now stands almost ghostly looking. 200 acres is now 7. The woods, the flowing well, the "marsh", the old sledding hill is no longer a part of it.

brings back memories of my Uncle and Aunt's farm. Among the stately looking old oak trees on the side driveway leading to a circular drive at my aunts house was also a mighty fine tractor tire hanging for all of us kids to play on.

Most of the farm was sold over the years to a nursery. At the end just the large farm house stood up on the hill and was sold when my aunt passed away. I wanted to buy that house soo badly but it really wasn't in the right distance from my husband's job and our kids schools.

pk

[keith]

Originally Posted by pk

Even though it is not a Wisconsin Barn, it still is a great barn and wonderful picture:

http://www.thebubbler.com/modules.ph...ewtopic&t=2840

thanks j10asen.

pk

This is definitely worth checking out.

Found some note cards of "Old Wisconsin Barns" much much the same look and feel at Half Price Books.

Regards,
Keith

[MrKhay]

In a casual conversation with a cousin of mine, I was pleased to accept on offer of the use of his former dairy barn as a MUSHROOM growing facility. A 120'x60' arched roof barn. Located on the very edge of the city, with a truck route. Man, how lucky can I be?
I was considering a move to Walsworth County, but this is one I can't pass up.
I can always edit this posting to include a photo of the barn, if Mark will let me put it on his server, and post the image here.

[pk]

Recycling history
Builders, remodelers will pay a pretty penny for wood weathered by time, life on the farm

Thorp - Countless cows and horses lived here. Untold bushels of wheat were threshed here.

Through the years and the decades and, most likely, the century, this old barn sheltered farm animals, tractors and hay bales.

The wood likely came from pine trees that were nearby, as were the stones used for the foundation. No one is sure when the barn was last used, but it's been awhile. Now it's too late to save it, and the new owners want the land for another purpose.

But instead of burning it, bulldozing it or letting nature finish the job, Mike Zaiger and his four-person crew were dismantling the 36-by-80-foot structure piece by piece earlier this month. The weathered boards and hand-hewn timbers will likely end up as flooring and siding in expensive homes. The foundation stones will soon decorate backyards and home gardens.

Many of the barns that popped up like mushrooms across Wisconsin's landscape a century ago when the state was becoming America's Dairyland have outlived their usefulness. Now they're being recycled.

"We grew up on farms, been on farms all our lives. We feel these barns should be used again and shouldn't fall by the wayside," Zaiger said as he pounded out nails that were pounded in a century ago.

What may look like eyesores to some are wooden gold mines to others because folks are willing to pay a lot for the weathered look unique to a 100-year-old barn. David Sacia, owner of Great Lakes Co. in Baraboo, has been selling old barn wood both wholesale and retail for several years.

"There's a huge demand, which is wonderful because no one is using the barns," said Sacia, who sells the wood to builders and remodelers around the country.

Barn flooring sells for $8 to $18 per square foot, while siding sells for $2 to $7 per square foot depending on width. Orders have gone as high as $100,000. About 90% of his products are sold for homes, while the rest are used for furniture or crafts such as birdhouses.

FULL STORY HERE: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index....5&format=print

[MrKhay]

The design of wooden barns is perfect for mushroom production. Airy, dry, but naturally damp, not really well lit. Mushrooms love this sort of climate. I can't wait to get my mushroom farm started in a barn that was used for decades by local relatives. I saw the barn that originally stood in the spot destroyed by fire. I was 3, or 4 years old. I remember seeing the new barn being built in the same spot, and always hoped for the best to come to that barn. It stands empty now, as dairying has gone to the corporate farms, the mega farms.

[j10asen]

I found this barn just north of Shawno as we were returning from Boulder Lake 6/3/07 .

[pk]

nice picture!

[JimiW]

I found this barn on my way to go fishing on july 4th and I thought it was great!

It is West of Amery on Mains Crossing near Polk county Park.
Jimi

[AJE]

From the days when Thomas Jefferson envisioned the new republic as a nation dependent on citizen farmers for its stability and its freedom, the family farm has been a vital image in the American perception.

As the main structures of farms, barns evoke a sense of tradition and security, of closeness to the land and community with the people who built them.

Even today the rural barn presents a forceful image of community spirit. Just as many farmers built their barns before they built their houses, so too many farm families look to their old barns as links with their past. Old barns, furthermore, are often community landmarks and make the past present. Such buildings symbolize ethnic traditions and local customs; they reflect changing farming practices and advances in building technology.

The largest concentrations of round barns are found in the Midwest, particularly in Wisconsin. Round barns were promoted for a number of reasons. The circular form has a greater volume-to-surface ratio than the rectangular or square form. For any given size, therefore, a circular building will use fewer materials than other shapes, thus saving on material costs. Such barns also offer greater structural stability than rectangular barns. Also because they can be built with self-supporting roofs, their interiors can remain free of structural supporting elements, thereby providing vast storage capabilities. The circular interior layout was also seen as more efficient, since the farmer could work in a continuous direction, to make the feeding and milking of cows more efficient. There were some who attribute their construction to the folk belief that evil spirits hid in corners.

Vernon County Round Barn



Dane County Round Barn 1800s


Pepin County Round Barn


St. Croix County Round Barn

[CarolsCritterCare]

These are great photo's.
Carol

[AJE]

Manitowoc County after the storm

[pk]

Any more barn pictures? Love to see really old barns and it's always great if someone can post the history of the barn in the picture too.

[dgridley]

I don't want to get off-topic because this is about old Wisconsin barns, but here's my favorite near me: