Are you lost?

Whitewater Falls Stock Farm

If you stumble across the Whitewater Falls Stock Farm on Falls Road, north of Towanda, you are probably lost. For sure, you have left Highway 296, and you are heading north, on Adams Road, or one of the other gravel feeder roads that snakes north along the Whitewater River.

The white barn

Heading north

The barn

The trees by the river

From the stream

The road there

National Register of Historic Places

The National Park Service and the National Register of Historic Places Program list the farm as being worthy of preservation, but the Park Service focuses on the turn of the century Craftsman house and not the true gem, which is the white barn. That is what one comes for, if one is not lost.

Now empty of animals, imagine dozens of majestic Percherons gathering contentedly about the feed racks.

Curious, I had to learn who built it and why.

James W. Robison

It has been but three or four generations since James W. Robison (1831 –1909) came to the United States from his native Scotland. The name was Robertson there, but as so often happens along the way, some clerk misspells a name, and the new spelling sticks.

Born near Banff, Scotland, he emigrated as a child, and arrived in America where his father took up the business of railroad contracting. As part of his payment, his father was given a large tract of land in central Illinois, and so the family moved there in 1835. After getting his education, Robison managed the family farm, establishing fruit orchards that were so successful that he was nicknamed “Apple Robison”. In 1874, he was elected to the Illinois Senate as a Republican and served two two-year terms.

In 1879 he visited Kansas and purchased a 3,840-acre tract of land along the Whitewater River in Butler County. In 1884, he moved his family to Eldorado, and took up the project of building his farm, Whitewater Falls, four miles north of Towanda. To the nearly 4,000 acres he added an additional 13,000 acres of land.

Percherons

Along with cattle and farming, he began to breed horses focusing on Percherons. Success came with hard work. Prizes were awarded the Robison Percherons at the World’s Fair, International, American Royal, at the State fairs of Illinois, Missouri, Virginia, Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma and in far-away Canada. By 1911, the Whitewater Falls Stock Farm was the largest Percheron farm in the United States.

In 1897, he was elected to the Kansas Senate.

In 1909, he died of a stroke.

The setting is pretty

On the far side of the barn, to the north, the Whitewater River, really a stream, still flows past the elm, walnut, hackberry and sycamore trees on the banks.

The house is quite nice, but can’t be the same without J.C. Robison or his son James, who are now gone.

Imagine again, as Vol.P Mooney wrote long ago, in front of  “the broad fireplace, [a chair] and the dancing flames shed a welcome warmth. On the library wall hangs a wonderful study in oil of a group of Percherons with Casino in playful pose in the foreground. A generous collection of trophies tells the story of numerous show ring conquests. Without, the duties of the day are done and twilight gently draws its veil of mystery. The fire on the hearth burns low, and the ceaseless song of the waterfall lends enchantment to the hour.”

History of Butler County, Kansas by Vol. P. Mooney.

Conclusion

Happy I came, I will leave you with this.

“Not all who wander are lost.”

Why are barns painted red?

Abandoned, not yet. Old, certainly. But what is interesting about an old red barn? Not what, why?

an old red barn

The idea of painting a barn red did not originate in Kansas. Duh!

 

Most likely, it began in dreary Scandinavia where long weary winters left farmers with a lot of time on their hands. And the long winters were depressingly grey, so a little color helped to remind Scandinavians of the summers behind and ahead.

Red is a strong color, associated with Odin, the Norse god of wisdom, poetry, and war.

More important to those thrifty Scandinavians, red is the cheapest color to stir up. It can made using ferrous oxide, a.k.a. rust. Stick a rusty sword or axe into a batch a linseed oil and wait. Or more likely, red clay with white chalk, a form of quicklime that helps to insulate.  I doubt, as some suggest, that cows or pigs blood was used to color paint. Blood is much too valuable to waste. Blood soup, blood sausage, and blood pudding put an end to that thought.

There is a scientific answer. Rust is a poison to mold and moss and toad stools, which unhealthily grew on barns and made them look as if a troll lived there. And surely, some farmers wife pointed out to her husband that a painted building looks better than an old grey one.

Thus, keeping up with the Johanssons, became the norm.

Ode to an old red barn

A barn is far too important a building to be left forlorn.

Once painted bright red, now a ghostly vision of the past, neglected, no place for the likes of kings and queens, lords and ladies, or even you and me; but like the poet, the barn serves, it stands and waits for cows that roam the hills for grass and for a treat get to lick a block of salt, or stand in bunches ‘neath a lonely tree for shade, flicking at those pesky flies with much too short a tail, waiting ‘til the close of day to come home, happy to find shelter from the storm, happy to munch a little hay, happy though they have not a lot, but an old forgotten barn.

There they rest the restless night, protected from the mighty storm, waiting, waiting, though thank God, they know not, to be served between a bun.

Old white barn Ottawa

old barn in Ottawa, Kansas

 

Just an old white barn on the western edge of Ottawa, Kansas. One gets there off of Interstate 35 or K-68. Take Eisenhower Road off I-35 to 7th Street.

Just a beautiful old barn with a hidden story waiting to be told. Maybe, you know?

What do you call the thingy on top of a barn?

What do you call the thingy on top of a barn?

Barn with Cupola

The small round dome on top of the barn is a cupola. They are also square and rectangular.

Square cupola on barn

Barn cupolas grew in popularity after the Civil War. While they may add some light into the barn, the primary purpose is to allow ventilation. This helps to keep stored hay dry, venting built-up heat, and deterring spontaneous fires.

Larger barns have more than one cupola.

Barn with two cupolas

A short history of Kansas barns

In 2007, the Kansas State Historical Society hired Brenda Spencer to survey the historic barns of Kansas.

Of the 352 barns she surveyed, over three quarters were built from 1900 to 1929, during “The Golden Age of Agriculture.” During and after World I, Kansas farmers fed a hungry Europe and enjoyed a rare period of prosperity. The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and World War II saw a drop in barn construction for obvious reasons. You can check out Ms. Spencer’s survey here.

Everything else you want to know about Kansas barns is the subject of an in depth article by the Kansas State Historical Society.

That is, until I came across a site by the Kansas Barn Alliance that posts images of unusual and interesting Kansas barns.

I thought it interesting to add a few of my own choices.

My first two nominees can be found in Franklin County, just off of I-35. The first is a gambrol roof barn, meaning the roof has two slopes with the second slope steeper than the first. The second barn is a simple gable roof.

Red Barn Gambrol Roof

White Barn gable roof