Along with 170 or so houses, there was at least one barn lost in the recent Fourmile Fire. It was not remarkable or even functional, with walls falling apart and a partial roof. It stood by its self in a little field right along Sunshine Canyon Drive, a visible and much loved signpost along the road.
The fire burned up from Fourmile Canyon to the north and east, over the ridge that is Sunshine Canyon Drive and partially down the other side. There was a very controlled line just west of the Bald Mountain parking area but this barn was lost on the east side of that. I don’t know exactly how it happened but the burn immediately around barn indicates that a few embers probably caught the old, dry wood of the barn and the flames were contained.
This barn marked the turnoff from Sunshine Canyon Drive that was the access road to a project I designed and that I visited frequently during construction. A couple times a week for about three years, I watched this barn slowly, almost imperceptibly, fall down while our project was building up. And, like many architects, the barn held a fascination for me that took me into the falling structure to poke around and take dozens of photos. The beautiful, simply structure housed a couple of old rotten-stuffing upholstered chairs, a stove, and a whole army of rusty cans and pails.
And now, the site holds only the memory of that old barn. No one will rebuild it, or ever could recreate the strange and intriguing air that floats around inside abandoned buildings.
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