Marshfield site rounds out list of state triviaPosted: March 27, 2002
Marshfield - Sometimes I think I've heard every largest, smallest, oddest, oldest, weirdest claim to fame Wisconsin towns have to offer. I know stuff too trivial for a trivia contest. Did you know the founder of St. Paul is buried in Crawford County in the oldest Catholic church in Wisconsin? I do. I know more useless little known facts than the blowhard mailman Cliff Clavin on the corner stool at "Cheers." No wonder people avoid me at cocktail parties. But every time I think there can't be any biggest, teeniest, etc. claims to fame that I have missed in my travels, I find otherwise. I awoke one morning last week in Marshfield - it's all right, that's where I was when I went to sleep - and went for a run in a late winter snow shower. A few miles later I found myself in front of a huge and handsome structure that was very clearly labeled the "World's Largest Round Barn."
Wow, I said, I did not know that. So I ran - where else - around it and then went back to the hotel to learn more. According to the Marshfield visitor's guide, the round barn - still the show palace of the Central Wisconsin State Fair each summer - was completed in 1916 and measures 150 feet in diameter and stands 70 feet high. Fitted with wooden bleachers and stanchions for 250 head of cattle, it was built to house purebred animals for both sales and shows. Round barns were in vogue then - later, advances in automatic milking machines would replace the three-legged stool and make round barns inefficient - but even so the size and style of this barn stood out. There are various explanations for round barns, but you probably shouldn't believe the one I like best, that the first round barn was built so the neighbor boy couldn't chase the farmer's daughter into a corner. I used that in a speech once and was scoffed at by a woman in the audience - I'm guessing the mother of a farmer's daughter - who didn't find it a bit funny. What makes this barn even more impressive is that it was built by hand, without scaffolding or visible support beams, by a band of barn builders who were also brothers. The contractor and designer was Frank A. Felhofer, and when construction began on Thanksgiving Day of 1915, his main crew consisted of brothers John, Fred and Henry. Other brothers Charles, William and Edward helped out when extra hands were needed. The barn's builders had to cut the fingers out of their gloves so they could pound nails in shingles in the coldest months of winter. But the Felhofer boys knew what they were doing. They guestimated the two-story roof would require 190,000 shingles, and it finally took 188,000. The ground floor featured two rings of stalls surrounding an open show ring. A second floor was completed in 1917, and during early fairs, it was used for small animals like chickens and rabbits. Today, the second floor is considered too unstable to be used but the ground floor, now renovated to accommodate more than 300 head of cattle, is still in use. The World's Largest Round Barn, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is used for various events through the year, but the best time to see it might be during the Central Wisconsin State Fair, which this year will be held from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2. One of the largest such events after our own Wisconsin State Fair, the central Wisconsin version features a state draft horse show, free grandstand and family shows, and other attractions. On the way, maybe you could stop in Lynxville. Did you know that's where you'll find the world's largest cigar store Indian? Sigh. I did.
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