LA GRANGE COUNTY, Ind. – The Indiana Barn Foundation’s LaGrange County Barn Tour was Sept. 13, 2025. Sonya Harman-Nash, the director of Visit Shipshewana, explained a bit about this tour. “We are excited to share the story and rich history in LaGrange County to elevate the stories of families, farms and the farmers and barns that still today provide a livelihood of farming in this community and nation.”

The barn tour was sponsored by the Indiana Barn Foundation, which they said is “Preserving Indiana’s heritage, one barn at a time.”

While the official barn tour took place on the 13th, there were a couple of tours open on the 12th. One was the Stutzman Dairy Barn. you Harry Stutzman, Jr. opened the barn of his Amish dairy for tours. “This building was built with a crane and pushing poles and ropes,” he shared.

At one time the barn burned and then they had a barn raising. The Stutzman family took over the operation in the 1980s. Everything changed in 2006 when Stutzman talked to his boys about the future of the operation. “We got together and expanded the herd.”

They modernized the farm, and it is now part of the Northern Indiana Dairy Trail. Stutzman said, “We had the privilege to live with grandma, Mary Schrock, for 10 years. She passed in 1990, she was 93.”

The house was built in 1830, and he said it was rebuilt in 1920, and remodeled in 2000. “The stones came from the basement,” he shared.

During the tour, he said they were currently milking 120 cows; they milked 150 at peak. When milk prices went high in 2006, they decided to make, sell and bottle their own milk. They now have several flavors like strawberry and coffee maple, made under the name Amish Country Dairy.

In 2022, they entered the Madison Taste Test in Wisconsin. Much to their surprise, their flavored milk placed first in the World’s Taste Test.

Besides the Stuzman Diary, Brown Dairy was also open to tour. On the 13th, the tour kicked off at Pretty Valley Barn. In the barn, there was a lot of educational information sharing details of different types of barns.

The Pretty Valley barn was built in the 1940s to milk 40 Jersey cows. Rather than wood, the entire lower part of the barn (including the ceiling/floor of the hay mow) was constructed of concrete mixed on site and poured using wheelbarrows and ramps. Today the barn serves as a storage and workshop area for the owner of the 7.5-acre farmstead.

Eight barns were included on the tour, all close together. Cook’s Bison Ranch is a unique stop in Wolcottville where visitors can get up close and personal with bison. The farm began in 1939 when Everett Cook purchased an 83-acre farm with the house and beautiful barn. Now the 3rd generation is on the farm offering bison meat, meals and group tours.

Crooked Gate Farm in LaGrange offered an Amish school bake sale fundraiser as part of their tour, as well as a hay tunnel and crafts. The Crooked Gate barn is a 19th century bank barn with a large corn crib distinctive to this region. Dr. Randall Miles shared basic barn architecture and rehab during the tour.

The MK Percheron barn had a beautiful barn quilt with a Percheron in the center. At this site, visitors enjoyed seeing the lovely horses up close and personal. Mike Howe said the barn was assessed as being built around 1900. “It was considered an English barn with a center bay that they used to drive through. Hay lofts were on each side. A four-loft barn, on the west side and one on the east side. The size is 40-by-60, 35 feet tall to the peak. It is hewn lumber pegged. They said there was a renovation where they modified it with steel nails to help beef it up. We bought the barn in 1988. In 1994 they had a wind shear come through. It took our back barn the roof off and the west side came off the foundation.”

They fixed the foundation, and the barn was a beautiful addition to the tour. At the Our Heritage Honey Farm, they offered honey sales and tasting. Tommy Kleckner of the Indiana Barn Foundation said the barn was built in 1949 as a Wisconsin Dairy Barn. “But I am referring to it as a Wisconsin Bank Barn because it is set into the slope to allow easy access for hay equipment etc.,” he said.

It has rigid asbestos/cement siding. It is the walk inside with the arched ceiling that is so eye-catching. Next to it is a unique narrow wooden corn crib, “You don’t see those often, they got replaced by the wire cribs.”

Springfield Farm had a fun antique tractor collection along with a Selfie stand. There were miniature steam engines, a cool original TO 35 Ferguson tractor and a whole line up of a variety of brands. There was also a neat Spirit of 76 Case tractor as well.

The Hay Barn also had antique farm equipment on display. The 1903 barn is owned by Jon Bovee and was once slated for demolition. Rather than let that happen, Jon and his wife took it apart, and rebuilt it on their own land, giving it new life.

The last barn listed, Yoder Family Farm, had an Amish bake sale school fundraiser and a fun cow selfie stand. They had cows and a milking room. In late afternoon they had a milking demo.