DANVILLE — Who would spend an afternoon visiting barns? You know — those old utility buildings you see out in the country that house animals or are used for storing farm equipment or feed.
A lot of people, if Saturday’s Knox County Barn Tour is any indication. A steady stream of visitors to the Danville area wound their way from barn to barn through the area, visiting six barns of different ages and styles, getting an up-close look at how they are constructed and the ingenious ways people have found to make their work easier.
Some of the barns represent construction technology from the mid-nineteenth century; others are more modern.
For information on how some of these big, old barns were built, and on a group that works to preserve old barns, a good stop was the Shultz Barn on Jericho Road. The barn is a huge L-shaped structure, built shortly after the Civil War.
Next to it, Paul Knoebel of Canal Fulton, from the Friends of Ohio Barns, had a model of a classic Pennsylvania fore-bay barn set up, which he uses to explain features of barn construction. He is on the board of directors of the organization, which is “all about saving barns,” he said.
He also had with him a miniature barn framework he uses to teach children about barn construction.
