For the last 140 years, this barn has stored hay, protected cattle and horses from the elements, and stood watch over this sleepy crossroads outside of Story City. Unfortunately time has run out on this monument to old world Norwegian craftsmanship; its field stone foundation has crumbled to dust in the northeast corner, its floors starting to rot.

As I write this, the barn is still standing, but it is scheduled to be dismantled sometime in the next few weeks. The wooden siding and hand cut beams will be shipped to Texas and re-purposed. It is a sad ending to a local landmark, but a dignified one when compared to the hundreds of abandoned barns that dot the Iowa landscape, left to collapse under their own weight in the unrelenting Iowa climate.