John Patrick McNaughton Barn facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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John Patrick McNaughton Barn
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The McNaughton Barn in May 2007
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| Location | Ottawa County, Oklahoma |
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| Nearest city | Miami, Oklahoma |
| Built | 1893 |
| NRHP reference No. | 91001903 |
| Added to NRHP | December 27, 1991 |
The John Patrick McNaughton Barn, also known as the McNaughton Barn, is a really old and big wooden barn. It's located in Ottawa County, near Miami, Oklahoma. This huge barn was built way back in 1893! It was designed to be used for many different things. Even today, the McNaughton Barn is still busy at the Ankenman Ranch, which is a working cattle ranch.
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The Barn's Awesome Design
The McNaughton Barn sits on a very strong limestone foundation. This stone was dug right from the hill where the barn stands. The building is super big, covering about 9,600 square feet (that's about 842 square meters!). It's shaped like a perfect rectangle, 80 feet by 120 feet. The barn has a long, low Dutch hip roof.
You can see a single gabled dormer window on the south side of the roof. In old pictures, the barn also had a small tower called a cupola on top. But this cupola was removed or lost sometime after 1906.
Inside the Barn: First Floor
The first floor of the barn has two rows of stalls for animals. The floors in these stalls are made of dirt, which is part of the barn's foundation. One row has 16 stalls, which were made for large draft horses. The other row has 10 stalls, designed for smaller horses and stallions.
Each stall has its own small window, a bin for grain, and a trough for hay. The hay troughs get their hay from chutes that come down from the second floor. Animals enter the barn from the south and east sides. These entrances are protected by the barn's big roof. The ground floor also has four large areas to store grain. There are also floor scales, three rooms for tack (horse riding gear), an office, and a repair area. A chute from the second floor brings grain down to this level.
Inside the Barn: Upper Floors
You can reach the second floor by climbing a wide staircase. This floor is where the main grain storage area and hay racks are located. Long ago, visitors could even sleep in special quarters on the second floor.
A part of the third floor is open to the second floor. This helps the hay stored on the second floor dry out properly. A special pulley system was used to lift grain up to the third floor. This grain was then poured through trap doors into three tall columns. From these columns, the grain could be sent down to the first floor for the animals or to other storage areas.
History and Restoration
The McNaughton Barn has been standing for over a century! After so many years of hard work and facing Oklahoma's weather, the barn slowly started to wear out. Because it's such an important and large example of a "prairie barn," it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
The Ankenman Ranch, where the barn is located, decided to restore it. They started fixing up the McNaughton Barn in 2001 and finished all the work in 2002. Now, this historic barn is in great shape and continues to be used today.
Images for kids
- John Patrick McNaughton Barn
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A 1906 photograph of the McNaughton Barn
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The gabled dormer on the barn near collapse prior to restoration
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The McNaughton Barn in 2001, prior to extensive renovation
