| Historic
barn pending development
By Shannon Kay Johnson
March 30, 2007 | NIBLEY -- Barns. Not much of a novelty
in Cache Valley, but thanks to the Nibley City Council
one barn will be sticking around.
Ernest Morgan moved to Nibley in 1903 but he refused
to go into debt for the construction of a barn, so what
became the Gibbons and Morgan barn was originally a
lean-to.
The lean-to would later become the east side of the
barn, and the feeding troughs found outside the lean-to
would later be inside the structure.
The city purchased the barn without any concrete plans.
"But it has been a priority to preserve this
piece of Nibley's agricultural history," said Larry
Ahnders, the Nibley city manager.
Some ideas have been mulled over at council meetings.
At a meeting in February, councilman Scott W. Larsen
suggested making the area a Four-H headquarters.
The most common suggestion, though, has been to make
a a petting zoo, or the barn and the adjacent land a
park.
So though no one really knows what purpose the barn
will ultimately serve the city is restoring the barn
with crews cleaning working on the grounds.
They are working to make the barn as it would have
been years ago around the Fourth of July when the previous
owner would store her magnolias in the shade of the
barn so they would open up at the right time.
Part of what makes the barn unique is that most features
of the barn are handmade from gate latches to wooden
troughs.
The barn was made for manual labor and has been in
constant use since it was completed in 1911, said Ahnders.
The unique structure has been featured in a book of
historic barns.
MS
MS
|
