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Mat-Su landmark crumbles
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| December 24, 2013 |
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| The Lloyd Bell/Doc McKinley
barn, December 23, 2013 |
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Story by Mike Weland
Photos by Stewart Amgwert
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February 7, 2002 |
To people of a certain bent, there's something almost mystical
about a rough-hewn old barn. I don't know if its born of a love
of old craftsmanship, an appreciation for timber rough-shaped
with old tools; broad axes, adzes, bits and braces and draw
knives, and built into a utile structure upon which our forbears
depended on even more than the home in which they raised their
family.
It could be, in my case, more elemental, having my first
memories of the day to day work that went on in the barn not
long before offices and malls became our society's predominant
work place. I can't tell you how Stewart Amgwert came by
his love of old barns, only that his love is deep and abiding.
After years spent in stores and offices, I've never forgotten
the short time I spent on the family farm in Missouri while dad,
who grew up there, was moving his young family to a new military
base.
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December 31, 2004 |
I have to admit, having become used to the steel and concrete
amenities of military family housing of my vague memory, my love
of barns didn't come easy. My grandma told me stories of how the
barn and the root cellar struck terror in my three-year-old
heart.
I don't remember that, only the time, not two years later, when
the barn became magical; the smells of hay and pigs, the motes
of dust wafting in the shaft of light shining through the
hayloft. The work that took place there. I was allowed to milk
my first cow there, shown how to squirt a fresh stream to each
of the cats gathered around.
It wasn't until years later, years spent in offices and high
rises, that I began to wonder at how an old barn came to be,
came to appreciate the craftsmanship, the durability. The
appreciation that those old centers of the family were seldom,
if ever, built by a family; but that each was the result of
neighbors working together to build a community.
You might think that those old barns, so sturdily built, would
stand forever, but they don't. When the farms they were built to
serve began melting away, the hard work of the pioneers fell pry
to neglect and slide into slow but valiant decline.
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June 4, 2006 |
Stewart watched, over the course of more than a decade, the slow
decline of at least one such barn, the Lloyd Bell/Doc McKinley
barn on the backside of Bodenburg Loop on Doc McKinley
Road in the Butte.
"It’s been sagging more and more over the years," he wrote with
obvious sadness yesterday, "but it finally caved in the middle
far enough to pull down the chimney."
Most people won't understand his dedication, or why I write so
long on the subject, but others will remember, and feel history
passing.
That old barn stood strong for nearly a century, sheltering many
who helped build the Matanuska.
It stood its time and served well, finally outlived by all it
made possible and no longer tended, no longer needed or much
appreciated as much more than a curiosity of days gone by.
For whatever reason, people like Stewart remember, and thanks to
him, that old barn will be remembered.
He's not the only one.
Helen Hegener, Northern Light Media,
created a website telling more about this and other such aged
and falling monuments at
http://matanuskabarns.wordpress.com.
To see Stewart's unedited photos, visit
http://nopeople.com/homepage/Colony%20Barns/falling_in/index.html.
Maybe the passing of that old Mat-Su friend will be eased
somewhat by their
efforts. |
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| March
31, 2007 |
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| March
20, 2010 |
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| October
20, 2013 |
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