SigMT

48 | SignatureMT Found on Red Barn Lane north of Absarokee, this barn is almost an exact replica of the nearby barn with the brands painted on the front. On the third floor next to the granaries and hay loft, two rooms were plastered and used as bedrooms for the hired help. This ranch is now owned by Rinda and Gordon Galarneau. They are restoring the barn to its former grandeur, both inside and out. Another Herem son, Oliver, who lived on Butcher Creek Road just off Highway 78, owned the third barn. Continuing to be a "working" barn for Gordon and Anne Parker, who is Oliver's daughter, it too originally was used as space for barn dances in the hay loft. Bob Hem of Columbus said that his grandfather owned the farm where the barn with the brands painted on the front was built. "I don't know who built it, but as closely as I can figure, the barn was built between 1906-1910. This barn and the one at the L Bar W Ranch down the road are so much alike that I wonder if the same man didn't build them." Mike Walen, one of the L Bar W Ranch owners, reminds the observer that the barn on their ranch is not for Just off Highway 78 on Butcher Creek Road, is another large gambrel-shaped barn. Owned by Oliver Herem, it was the site of many barn dances. Like the VanEvery barn, it has the "weathered" look Located two miles south of Absarokee, this white barn was built by Osmond Herem. It is now owned by Rick Young. ~A life-long interest in communications made Suzanne Waring first a college instructor and then a writer. She lives in Great Falls and writes about Montana people and their communities. exhibition. It continues to be maintained as a "working" barn. All of these barns had a protruding peak on the gambrel roof at one end of the barn. When the large flap under the extended peak was opened, tongs were lowered by ropes attached to the peak to lift up the hay from a wagon into the hay mow. This was a wonderful back-saving process. All except the white barn on the original Herem place continue to have cupolas, and the big red barn on the Galarneau ranch has two. Cupolas adorned barns but they had a practical purpose too. They served as shelter to an opening beneath that created better air flow throughout the barn. A large brown barn with textured shingles in the arch of the gambrel is found a few miles from Absarokee and eight miles west of Columbus. It was built by the owners of the Miller Ranch along the Yellowstone River. Originally Merrill was a stop on the Bozeman-Miles City stagecoach line around the turn of the century. The barn was used to shelter draft and saddle horses. Crews from the stockyards across the railroad tracks from the ranch also stayed in it during shipping season. Modern metal barns may be practical and fit the needs of today's farmer, but they don't have the nostalgia of early twentieth-century barns. Old barns continue to be compelling to us because of their appearance and their history. MT S

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