Iowa’s rich agricultural heritage runs deep and perhaps no other state has preserved as many historic barns, whether they’re red or white, round or rectangular. A celebration of Iowa’s barns will be held this month for the 26th year. The All-State Barn Tour opens the barn doors wide to visitors in nearly every Iowa county. Wayne Frost serves on the board of directors for the Iowa Barn Foundation, and he says sizeable crowds turn out every autumn for the two-day tour.
Frost’s red barn in southern Black Hawk County was built in the 1870s for horses and milk cows, and it’s been in his family for eight decades. He says an Amish construction crew worked over seven weeks in 2018 to fully restore the majestic structure.
The organization’s website, Iowa Barn Foundation-dot-org, features photos of each of the 108 barns on this year’s tour, with details about the history of each structure. Think if you’ve seen one barn you’ve seen ’em all? Think again. Frost says they’re all unique and packed with history and there’s at least one near you that’s worth exploring.
Round barns became popular in the 1920s as they were billed as being more efficient, often with a silo in the center, but Frost says they were more difficult to construct. Iowa had more than a hundred round barns a century ago and there are 16 circular survivors on this year’s tour. You’ll see some white barns, but the majority of them are painted red. Why is that?
This year’s tour will be held the weekend of September 19th and 20th. It’s self-guided and free.
