Board-by-board: Barn along Almota Road makes exit

Jamie Ford is practicing his own kind of art.

Board by board, nail by nail, Ford, 42, is tearing down an old three-story barn on Almota Road south of Colfax. The barn was built in the early 1900s and was the long-time farm home of the Herb Mohrs. In his retirement years, Mohr used the barn to raise donkeys which were a feature at the Ross Point Church camp.

The barn was well known because of its large cupola. That distinction was as big as a small house, Ford said, and was the first thing to come down. He said the cupola was leaning to one side and he got on top of the roof and pushed, making...