"When You See the Big Red Barn..."
About the "Barn Lady"
My fascination (some might say, ‘obsession’) with barns didn’t happen overnight but it didn’t exactly come on gradual either. I grew up on a dairy farm in Menominee County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where my parents had an award-winning herd of Holsteins. The farm had been in the Corey family since the 1880s and had Dad’s health held out it would have stayed that way. The barn had been built by my grandfather. Dad always said that the hardest part about leaving the farm was leaving the barn in someone else’s care. Rightfully so, because after we left the farm things were never the same. Everything went downhill. The care of the herd, the maintenance of the house and barn, the tending of the land. The farm was sold within a few years only this time the man only wanted the land. The barn fell into total neglect and at one point two families occupied the farmhouse. This was the house where my father and oldest sister had both been born.
Eventually the owner split the house, barn and 40 acres from the main farmland which he continued to work. A couple from Illinois bought the parcel and to my tremendous delight, began the restoration of the house, the barn and the addition to the barn that my parents had built in the early 1960s. But then, one day, I got a call from a friend telling me the big barn had been demolished. Just like that. Gone.
I think that may have been the catalyst for my determination to save heritage barns. I know that on that day I sat at my desk and sobbed, thinking at the time that it was probably good that Dad had not lived to know the barn he so loved was gone. When I learned there was an organization called the Michigan Barn Preservation Network, www.mibarn.net I got involved and for the past several years have been the editor of its newsletter. This has connected me with barn people literally across the United States and even some from a couple of other countries as well. There are “Barn Ladies” and “Barn Guys” everywhere and that is wonderful.
The passion for preserving heritage barns isn’t likely to fade anytime soon. So, I hope you enjoy browsing through this website from time to time. Better yet, I hope you will find a barn preservation organization near you (there are many across the country and for one of the best listings, visit www.thebarnjournal.org.) or contact the National Park Service and order a copy of its very informative poster, “Save that Farm.” (Oct. 2008) and get involved. Adopt a barn and become its advocate! Make a difference.
Coralan Farm
The Barns on Coralan Farm - 1968
About Me
- Jan holds a B.A. in English from Albion College; an M.A. from Nazareth College, Kalamazoo; and has studied holistic health through Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo and program evaluation at the University of Illinois-Chicago.