Moving the “Red Barn” to Founders

One of the buildings at founder referred to as the red barn was a massive undertaking and I have no way of knowing whether the account was accurate as it was given to me at the time but I will recount its story as it was told to me, here:

Sometime in the 19t0s there was a undertaking to a University in Thunder Bay and much talking and research going into the project. The story was told me as follows:

The Biloksi family had come to this country from Europe and had purchased land on the Oliver Road with the intention of farming. They had built a home there and the barn was erected also. I am not sure who built the house and the barn, perhaps a previous owner. Mr Biloski had 2 sons who wanted to go to university but this was not offered to them here and they would to go to Winnipeg to finish their education. He offered the property to the university board if they would build the university on the site. The deal was made and the university was built. I am not sure how Fred Goodfellow acquired the barn but he did and then proceeded to move it from Oliver Road out to founders property at the time he was driving a small Austin mini car very tiny and so to the move the barn he took it apart piece by piece and loaded each time on a small trailer attached to the Austin he hung a red flag on the end of the timber and would drive out to the property to unload it and go back for another.

Each piece was carefully numbered and marked so he knew how to put it back together. This took a very long time and I remember seeing him coming and going y my door on Hwy 61. Many times he would come in dragging his prize and stop for coffee and pie on the way b the house. It was convenient for him because we had a wide driveway with a lane that went in a circle behind there garage to accommodate our gravel trucks. So he was able to turn around and go out easily.

Moving and putting the barn back together took an excruciating seven long years. Piece by piece he out it together as his centennial project wit the help of several local young people like Fred Hurlbert and others from the area most of them teenagers at the time and was able to open right on schedule for centennial year 1967. He even added an extra story making it a three story barn. He installed an elevator of his own design to lift heavy objects from the ground floor to the third floor. The elevator is still in working order today.*

By Lois Garrity

*at the time of writing