Historic Barns Map

A belated New Years present, this “Barn of the Month” is actually about a multitude of barns: those that can be seen from the public right-of-way on the four ferry-served islands (Lopez, Orcas, San Juan, and Shaw).  Ever since we designed this website, we’ve wanted to have interactive maps of barns.  Now, due to generous help from a San Juan County Historic Perseveration Grant (thank, you, San Juan County Council!) as well as donations from many of you barn lovers (thank you all!) we now have something to show you.

The Historic Barns Map can be found on the Maps Page off the menu (duh!) as well as through links at the top of each of the Island pages (Lopez, Orcas, San Juan, and Shaw) under the Barns–By Island page.  The map itself is interactive, in that when you click on each symbol it will open a mini-window that shows a photo and names and describes that barn (you can always look it up, by name, on the Barns–By Island pages, for more information).  The various symbols are for barns listed on the Washington Historic Barn Register and regular barns; the colors indicate the roof type, which is the most common means of describing a barn.

John Biendl Farm Barn on Shaw–and visible from the ferry!

Eventually we hope to have downloadable PDF maps for each of the ferry-served islands (again, Lopez, Orcas, San Juan, and Shaw), because we all know that cell phone service–and therefore using the Historic Barns Map in the field–can be a bit spotty in the islands.  A final note:there are a handful of barns that are visible from our water highways–the ferries themselves; we’ll have to think up a symbol for them and get them on the map soon!