We came across this beautiful old barn at the edge of the village of Uniontown while on a drive through eastern Washington state’s Palouse. Besides the barn, there’s an incredible fence which surrounds it. A little research revealed the following:
The barn was built in 1935 for Jack Dahmen and his family, who were dairy farmers. The barn was purchased from Jack in1953 by his nephew Steve Dahmen and wife Junette.
Steve Dahmen created the wheel fence surrounding the barn over a 30 year period. The wheels in the fence are from all kinds of machines, ranging from threshing machines to baby carriages. There are about 1000 wheels in the fence.
The Dahmen’s donated the barn to the Uniontown Community Development Association in 2004. The barn required cleaning and restoration, which took several years. During the process it was converted into a place where artists create and sell their goods. A wide variety of creative goods are sold here, ranging from sculptures to paintings, jewelry to photographs, wood carvings to ceramics. There’s also a classroom in it for teaching artistic skills to the community (eg. ceramics)
The barn is open on weekends and as we were passing through on a Monday, we couldn’t explore the treasures it held within, although I might head back sometime and give it a good look.
Incredible!