BLAIR, Neb. (KMTV) — A piece of history was on the move Wednesday night on Highway 133. A structure that’s more than a century old made its way to its new home.
“We’ve actually been driving past this barn for the past 25 years going back and forth to Omaha from Blair, and I’ve always admired this barn,” said Jeff Bledsoe.
Bledsoe is the Skinny Bones Pumpkin Patch owner, and when he heard this 119-year-old barn was set to be torn down, he couldn’t let it happen.
“The timbers in this barn are so thick and heavy, you walk into it, and you just go, 'Wow they don’t make the like this anymore,'” said Bledsoe.
Traffic was slow on HWY 133 as the barn made its way with the help on the back of a truck, with Nebraska State Patrol directing traffic, and others making sure the structure could get through the intersections.
“There’s actually a total of eight or nine power lines that will have to be taken down, so the barn fits underneath, so they have a couple crews that are going to be taking down the wire as they pull up to it,” said Bledsoe.
More than six hours later, the barn finally made it to its new home.
“If you look inside the barn here, the craftsmanship is just so much better in our opinion than something you can buy today,” said Zach Treves.
Treves is the farm manager at Skinny Bones and says the barn will be repainted and the inside, remodeled to include a full-service bakery, among other things.
“It’s going to totally change the look but still preserve the integrity of the barn it will still have that authentic barn feel in there,” said Treves.
Bledsoe is excited the move is over and looks forward to what this historical building will bring to his property.
“A lot of the people from the city don’t get to go inside of an old barn like this especially since a lot of them are falling down and we’re hoping they can just come in and look at the architecture of and how they were built and just enjoy it like we do,” said Bledsoe.
Skinny Bones hopes to have the barn fixed up and open to the public by fall.
