MSC News

MSC News National Headlines Sports Top Headlines CBS US News CBS Technology

Printer Friendly

Email to a Friend

Historic Doniphan Co Round Barn Destroyed

By Brian Hagen

07/19/2012

(KNZA)--A piece of local history is gone, destroyed last night as quick moving storms rolled through the area.

The loss happened in Doniphan County where the historic round John Fuhrken Barn, 3 ½ miles south of Denton, was reduced to a pile of rubble.

The National Weather Service is heading up the investigation into what caused the destruction, with what's called a dry micro-burst named as the likely culprit, with the long stretch of dry weather making the atmospheric conditions favorable for that type of severe weather event.

Chris Bowman is a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Pleasant Hill, Missouri(Play Audio)

According to the Kansas State Historical Society, the round barn-one of a handful of such historic structures in the state-was built between 1914 and 1915 by John Fuhrken for the purpose of stabling his mules. The structure originally contained five double stalls, as single stall, two granaries, a harness room and a full loft.

According to the Historical Society, the Fuhrken barn was featured in a 1992 television commercial for Budweiser beer.

Fewer than fourteen hundred round barns have ever existed in the United States, most of them in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Doniphan County Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Julie Meng, working with the National Weather Service investigators, says the Wednesday night weather also caused damage to several outbuildings in the county.

You will need to be logged in to leave a comment.

Please Login

The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited.

Click here to review our Terms of Use.