A Great Drive to See Log Barns
by Jon Radojkovic Radojkovic, OBP Director
I was happy when I saw the first log barn. I had expected to see some but after driving six hours from Grey County towards Renfrew through beautiful, mostly hilly forest covered country, with a scattering of timber frame barns, this was the first log barn. It wasn’t the last either.
We were driving to visit our son and his wife in Ottawa, and I took mostly secondary roads to get there. I saw at least a dozen log barns in varying conditions on Highway 132 between Dacre and Renfrew, a 30 kilometer distance. If you are near there or are driving to Ottawa, take this route, it’s amazing for a lovely drive and great log barn viewing.
I had been to Eastern Ontario before and knew there were still many log barns, from being used for livestock to crumbling into the ground. There are a couple of theories I had thought of as to why log barns still existed in this part of Ontario.
The area I am talking about is between Bancroft and Renfrew, below Algonquin Park and almost to the Ottawa River.
First, the land is very rough, with the Canadian Shield popping out in different places and the soil being mostly thin. Pioneer farmers who came here found out pretty quickly that after a few years of harvests, the soil’s fertility petered out.
Secondly, these areas were some of the last to be settled by European immigrants. The best lands, along the St. Lawrence River and then on to the Lakes Erie, Ontario and Huron, were taken up quickly. As more immigrants poured in, the more northern parts of Eastern Ontario were given out by the government of the day.
Some of the farms remained but for the most part, didn’t make enough income to build the more costly timber frame barns.
Take a road map out of Ontario, or even better Eastern Ontario. Look at this region and wherever you see a few grids of roads, well, that was most probably a pocket of good land and more barns.
A couple of more examples in that region of log barn are areas east of Almonte (Mississippi Mills) and northeast of Bancroft.
Hope you have a chance to see these barns, but remember, pull over safely, respect privacy and have fun!
To all OBP blog readers: If you have not already done so, please support not-for-profit, volunteer-run, Ontario Barn Preservation by becoming a member! Also, if you are in the business of repairing, reconstructing, engineering, designing, etc. old barns, please consider advertising your amazing skills on our Barn Specia-List. If you own an old barn that you would like to offer to someone else, or you are hoping to obtain one for your own project, make use of our Barn Exchange page. If you own an old barn and would like to save it in the virtual world for future old barn lovers, historians and researchers, check out our Your Old Barn Study page. And please send us your own barn story, photos and/or art for submission as a OBP blog posting for the enjoyment and education of all barn lovers! info@ontariobarnpreservation.com
