Barn painter Scott Hagan is shown painting a barn at Malabar Farm State Park as part of the original Bicentennial Ohio Barn program. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

Barns are my kind of my shy first love — the kind you’re afraid to admit, but there it is. There is a rustic, honest, gritty, hardworking beauty about the humble barn that is difficult to put into words.

I began taking photos of old barns more than 25 years ago. By now, a good number of the barns I photographed have disappeared. Some of these structures have been repurposed and renovated.

So that’s the other side of my motivation to photograph barns. They have a beauty all their own, but many of them are falling down, rotting, sagging and in general going back to the dust from which they were created.

The barns listed in my website Dusty Tires just scratch the surface of Ohio’s magnificent collection of barns. I’ve tried to especially list those that are accessible to the public in parks and so forth.

Hagan also painted this barn commemorating the Ohio Farm Bureau’s centennial. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

You can’t look at Ohio barns without mentioning Scott Hagan, The Barn Artist. Hagan, of Jerusalem, Ohio, painted all 88 of the Ohio Bicentennial Barns and has hand-painted unique designs on dozens of other barns in Ohio and other states. Learn more about his amazing art and craft at his website.

If you like barns, or want to see what others see in them, I recommend several Facebook groups, including “For The Love of Ohio Barns,” created by photographer Jane Snipes. She has taken and posted beautiful photos of barns and rural scenes from every season in Ohio. Another great Facebook group is “Round Barns and Other Interesting Buildings,” administered by Scott Wagner.

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Ken Drenten is creator and manager of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

All rights reserved, copyright Dusty Tires (dusty-tires.com), 2023.