The Historic J.P. McNaughton Barn
The historic McNaughton Barn has stood the test of time and stands as a reminder of the history of Ottawa County and Oklahoma before it became a state in 1907.
Built in 1893 by John Patrick McNaughton, J.P. came to Northeastern Oklahoma in 1877 in search of and to develop the “Spanish Mines”. At the time, Oklahoma was still Indian Territory and was home to the Peoria Indian Reservation as well as several other notable Tribes in the area. By 1891, McNaughton had organized the Peoria Mining Company, opened the first lead and zinc mine in the Indian Territory and built the first town, Peoria.
J.P. McNaughton became heir to two-hundred acres of land when he married the granddaughter of a Peoria chief, Clara E. Peery in 1881. They used the acreage to establish the Max Mirage View Farm, which also encompassed another eight hundred acres of improved land for crops, tall grasses and livestock.
Max Mirage View Farm raised registered Shorthorn and Angus cattle as well as Percheron and Clydesdale horses.
In 1891, a Post Office, Max, was established on the farm and was in existence until May of 1894. Daily mail was received from Baxter Springs, Kansas and was housed in the barn. The barn also became a way station for lodging travelers and stabling teams.
In 1896, J.P. held a dance to celebrate his new barn. The following excerpt from The Oklahoman on June 1, 1919 described the event:
…McNaughton was known from one end of the county to the other and when the new barn was completed it was thought that it would be well to give a dance and invite his friends, which he did and the barn dance that was held June 22, 1896, was one of the historical events of the early days of the Indian territory…
…On the day set for the dance the guests began to arrive from every point of the compass. They came in wagons, buggies, buckboards, on horseback. They came from all parts of the towns of this section of the country, from Kansas City, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh, from almost everywhere, and when the last one arrived it was estimated that there were a thousand present…Taken all together it was one of the greatest, If not the greatest barn dances ever held…
The three and a half story barn stands on a limestone foundation dug from the hill it stands on. The McNaughton barn is a wooden barn constructed with oak and walnut which have accounted for much of its longevity. The barn measures approximately eighty feet by one-hundred-twenty feet with a Dutch hip roof. The long, low roof, with a single gabled dormer on the south extends over the livestock entrances on the south and east sides of the first floor. The barn originally had a tall, narrow, cross-gabled cupola, which was destroyed by lightening in the 1940s, after which the roof was covered in tin. Small decorative features include scalloped wood shingles on the sides of the south dormer, hand-forged latches throughout the barn and diagonal siding covering the walls of both staircases. Large timbers also brace the interior of the barn.
In 1904, the United States government sent an official photographer to Indian Territory to photograph the best residences and barns, as well as farm scenery, for an exhibit at the 1904-1905 World’s Fair at St. Louis. The exposition of the Max Mirage View Farm received the ‘highest praise and comments of any from the Indian Territory.’
The first floor has two aisles of stalls, with dirt floors as part of the barn’s foundation. One aisle holds sixteen stalls for large draft horse, and the other contains ten stalls for smaller horses and stallions. Each stall has a small window, a grain bin, and a hay trough. The hay trough is fed by a chute from the hay racks on the second floor. The livestock entrances, on the south and east sides of brace posts, are sheltered under the barn’s roof. The ground floor has four large grain storage areas, floor scales, three tack rooms, an office, a repair and storage area, and a chute from the grain storage areas on the second floor.
The second floor, accessed by a wide staircase, holds the grain storage area and hay racks. In earlier times, sleeping quarters for visitors were located on the second floor. A portion of the third floor, accessed by a narrow set of stairs, is open to the second floor, that allowed the second-floor hay to cure. A pulley system with trap doors to the first floor was used to raise grain to this floor, which was then poured into one of the three grain columns for distribution to the livestock and other storage areas.
The immense size of the McNaughton barn did have its drawbacks. Another excerpt from the Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places is a statement from G.P. Trolinger in 1989, who rented the farm from 1923-1940, has memories of the amount of physical labor the barn required.
When he put oats in the first-floor grain storage, it was “shovel ‘em in and shovel ‘em out. Didn’t have no other ways of doing it them days. It was a very unhandy barn in lots of ways…Getting stuff in the loft was a terrible job…Getting out wasn’t so bad cause you could throw it down them chutes…always so dark…no electricity.”
The ranch, along with the barn, is currently owned by the Sandra Elaine Ankenman Trust and is still part of a working ranch, surrounded by corrals and grazing cattle. The J.P. McNaughton Barn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and restoration to protect the integrity of the barn began in 2001.
Sandy says of the restoration efforts, “We had a lot of people that wanted to work on the barn, but when they came out to look, it was too big, too old, too steep. No one would even give us a quote.”
Eventually they were introduced to Tim Eslick, who agreed to work on the restoration, which was done in stages.
“He was able to work on the outside of the barn, braced the dormer on the south side and worked on the roof. He was also able to caulk the leaking areas.” Sandy stated.
Tim stated of his restoration, “This barn is steep. This barn is huge. This barn roof has a new coat of paint. It took 55 five gallon buckets of paint and hours upon hours of labor. The work is hot, windy, and dangerous. Necessary equipment, a mountain climbing harness, lots of old clothes and a good chiropractor.”
For over a hundred and twenty-five years, the McNaughton barn has stood the test of time and serves as a reminder of years past and the rich history of the area.
