Historic Barn Becomes Community Center

Historic Barn Becomes Community Center AG WORLD 33-2-21 For more than 90 years the University of Wyoming experiment station near Lyman, Wyoming, was important to area agriculture. Now the farm, and in particular the farm's 1936 barn, is playing an important social role in the community. When the University sold the 160-acre farm to the town of Lyman, the barn's future was uncertain. A group of local residents raised $170,000 locally and received a $957,656 grant from the Wyoming Business Council to renovate it. "It has been booked ever since with wedding receptions, meetings, private parties, family reunions, dinners, luncheons and picnics," says committee leader and local resident Dorothy James. The renovation included installing a catering kitchen, restrooms, storage areas, an elevator, a deck and outdoor stairs. Floors were replaced and interior walls sided, except in the old haymow where the original bent wood rafters can be seen. The grant also included landscaping and adding parking areas and access roads. The Lyman Heritage Barn is part of a community history center that eventually will include a chicken coop converted to a visitor center, restoration of the farm orchard, a windmill, root cellar and outhouse. "The outhouse is of real interest to elementary kids when they come out here," says James. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lisa Bradshaw, Lyman Heritage Barn, P.O. Box 300, Lyman, Wyoming. 82937 (ph 307 787-6595; lbradshaw@lymanwy.com).

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