Circling Around the Pole
Posted by: 
Volcanoguy
N 43° 07.967 W 118° 38.550
11T E 366409 N 4776869
History sign about the Pete French Round Barn. The sign is located inside the barn near the entrance.
Waymark Code: WMAX4G
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 03/06/2011
Views: 2
Marker Name: Circling Around the Pole
Marker Text: The Round Barn’s circular pattern was used to keep the young horses traveling smoothly, safely and continuously without corners to stop their progress. Peter French’s innovative Round Barn was ahead of its time in the horse breaking business of the 1880s.
The huge circular building is 100 feet in diameter and it has a 60-foot diameter round stone corral in the middle. The outer paddock, used for working the horses, is 20 feet wide.
The umbrella-type center truss and centrally supported rafters were cut from juniper thought to be hauled from the bottom of a deep canyon where trees of this length would be found. This center truss along with 13 other posts support a roof that is 30 feet tall and is covered with more than 50,000 western red cedar shingles.
Horse drawn wagons hauled 250 tons of quarried lava stone 8 miles to erect the 9 foot high stone corral wall.
The gates were joined in a fashion to withstand the test of time. Notice the mortise & tenon construction and the gate hinge points. Intricate craftsmanship and simplicity of design is the reason they still operate today.
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