Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | I was in the same spot some years ago. The dairy barn was built by my Dad with the help of neighbors. The structure was sound but served no useful purpose anymore. I talked with others who had been through this. One thought was to give it away so something useful would come of some of the lumber. Part of the barn had been built with used lumber in the first place. The problem with giving it away is that the job rarely gets completed. Some guy starts out and runs out of energy and you are left with a mess.
My barn was featured on the cover of Successful Farming Magazine in 1954. My Dad, one brother, several neighbors and myself were in the picture as the barn was being built. My brothers and sister live in the area and I thought they might be offended if I tore the barn down. Turns out they understood and didn't have a issue with this.
I used to be on the local Fire Department and talked with them about burning it. They preferred that it be "knocked down" prior to the burning. I got a contractor with an excavator to knock the barn down and Fire Department burned it. The barn had some concrete floors and a block wall base. This debris was buried and a new shed was built in its place. Although it would have been nice to see the lumber used fore something useful I don't regret my decision.
An interesting side note to this barn. A friend of mine is a collector of old farm literature. He bought out the holdings that a lady had after her husband had died. He wasn't really sure of everything he got until he got home. As he unpacked the boxes he found several cardboard tubes. Inside each was a poster size copy of the Successful Farming Magazine cover of the barn with me, my Dad etc. He gave me several copies. They were in excellent condition since they had been in the tubes all those years. I gave copies to my brothers and sister. I had one framed and it hangs in the office of my shop. The picture is actually hanging inside the area where the barn once stood. This find was really quite a coincidence. We speculate that Successful Farming may have had copies of this cover made for advertising at trade shows. How and why the husband had come up with them is a mystery. |
Tear down old barn?
