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June 29, 2006
Libby Motika , Senior Editor
I don't give a jot. I love you a bushel and a peck. What's a jot, a bushel, a peck?
Time passes and words disappear, often protected only in the context of a clich'.
And, according to author Bob Crittendon, the big red barn, the schooner of the prairie, may soon be just a word without a home.
The author of "Barn in the U.S.A." (Fulcrum Books), Crittendon is doing his very best to document these icons of American history.
"I never lived on a farm," Crittendon told the Palisadian-Post, "but my dad took me to my granddad's farm in Tennessee when I was 5. I loved the smell, size of the barn and I harbored an interest in barns for many years. I wondered what the story was behind the barn."
Finally, when Crittendon retired, he took a four-year sojourn through the back roads of the western states documenting these American icons.
"I decided to focus on the Western states because in those barn-rich areas there are just so many barns, it's ridiculous." Whereas in the West, development has gobbled up farmland and the fabled barns as well.
In choosing the barns to include in the book, Crittendon had certain criteria in mind. "They have to be historic, either 100 years old, or have some particular architectural significance, or connected with a person or event that was historic. "I wanted to know how old it is, who created it and its survival story," Crittendon said.
Will Rogers' barn is included, as is the O.K. Corral, Crittendon explained.
Each barn is given a full-color page, paired with another page of history and additional photos. He has included just five in Southern California, far fewer than in other states.
"Will Rogers' barn was actually more assembled than built, since Will acquired two sections of horse stalls from a barn in the San Fernando Valley," Crittendon writes. In its final form, the barn, with its distinctive round canopy roof, also featured a row of windows and open wooden louvers, and provided quarters for a stable foreman, tack room, utility room and a wash rack.
In addition to chronicling the most interesting barns in the West, Crittendon included addenda in which he discusses the traditional barn color, red, historic preservation efforts and barn styles.
In the early 19th century, red barns began replacing the colonial grays of the 1700s. "The red color was a derivative of ferrous oxide (rust), a common component of paint mixtures in New England because it was cheap and easily obtained," he writes. "This became the standard, and the familiar red barn was born."
The styles of the barns of the West often combined the earlier Eastern barn styles with the particular needs of an owner. "A barn is used to shelter livestock, horses or cows, or for feed," Crittendon said. "There is supposed to be some covered enclosure, but I did include the O.K. Corral stables in Tombstone, Arizona, because of its historical significance. "The covered stables will suffice as the barn closest to the famous gunfight."
"Barn in the U.S.A." will be available in bookstores this summer and to members of historic preservation groups at www.historicbarns.com.
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