Farm-proud Iowa opens historic barns during Sept. 28 and 29 tour

Loie Hayward’s labor of love sits outside her home in Dysart, Iowa. The 1917 round brick barn that once held horses and hogs has been transformed into a historic showpiece. This month it will be one of about 90 barns featured on the 14th All-State Barn Tours on Sept. 28 and 29.

“I lived here as a kid,” the retired legal assistant says of the farm she returned to after years of living in San Francisco.

Hayward says the restoration was difficult and time-consuming (think of redoing your kitchen or bathroom, but on a much larger scale). The barn’s bricks were intact but the roof needed a lot of work and things such as rotting corn cobs in the hayloft needed to be cleared out.

The tour is a self-guided route of the state’s spectacular barns, which come in all shapes and sizes. They’ve been restored with the help of the nonprofit Iowa Barn Foundation, which sponsors the tour.

Travelers may choose their own itinerary to see different barns -- round, square, bright red or white, made of bricks, wood or limestone -- between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. both days.

For the foundation, it’s all about keeping the state’s agricultural heritage alive. It provided some grants to Hayward to underwrite the fix-up costs.

The foundation routinely provides funds to farm owners who agree to restore their property as close as possible to the original and promise to keep it as a farm fixture too.

To take the free tour, visitors should go to the All-State Barn Tours website for a list of barns with photos and background grouped by county.

From there you can plan the route you want to take (and don’t forget your cameras).

Info: 2014 All-State Barn Tours