Indiana Barn Foundation seeking local heritage barns for fall barn tour

Reporter's Note: This article originally published in the April 8, 2024 edition of The Shelbyville News.

Randy Miles from the Indiana Barn Foundation conducts an assessment of Patricia Crafton’s heritage barn in Flat Rock. Crafton would like to have the barn restored. The Indiana Barn Foundation offers assessments of heritage barns to help individuals get started on their path to restoration.

By HANNAH GUNNELL

Randy Miles from the Indiana Barn Foundation has dated more barns than women, he said.

And he dated Flat Rock resident Patricia Crafton’s heritage barn’s construction around 1890 (plus or minus 10 years) Friday afternoon during a barn assessment.

“The thing that gives it away is this big beam here,” he said, pointing to a beam that runs across the middle of Crafton’s barn. “This is hand-hewn. That did not go through a sawmill. It was by hand labor, chopped away. In many cases, they would dig a trench and get down in the trench, put the beam overhead and [cut it.] Early on, there were not local sawmills where that could be finished."

Miles and the Indiana Barn Foundation are on a mission to restore heritage barns around the state.

Read more: https://www.shelbynews.com/news/indiana-barn-foundation-seeking-local-heritage-barns-for-fall-barn-tour/article_56fb9368-0cca-5677-b26b-253f95bee1f4.html.