Manitoba's --- Uncommon Sites and Sights
Spotlight #10 -- Sunken barn (?) east of Lockport on Hwy. 44 near Hwy.206
Please send your contributions to pjarmstrong@mts.netYour comments will appear at the bottom of this page
under 'Viewers' Comments" or near the image.
- What was the function of the building [pictured below]?
- What year was it built?
- When was it last used??
- What was the family name of the people who operated this land?See 'Viewers' Comments' below.
Image #1 -- The north-west side -- Note the 'banked-up' land around the exterior.
Image #2 -- The south-east -- The inside floor is approx. 4-6 ft (1.5-2 m) below ground level.
Image #3 -- Sky-lights (?) which face south-east.
Viewers' Comments
Doug Donahue (Beausejour, MB) -- I'm not sure if anyone has ever adequately explained the reasoning behind the sunken barn located just off of Highway #44... but I was there a few times while it was still an operational building. Its primary use was as a root cellar type of a structure in that the storage portion of the building is located quite a few feet below the surface and hence is not as subject to wide temperature swings as an above ground building would be. When I used to go there (which was in the very early 70's), it was used to store potatoes. This is a MUCH smaller variation of how the farmers in the East Selkirk area store their potatoes. They have HUGE underground storage areas that are used to store so many potatoes that it would make your head spin.
Bob DeMeyer (Oak Bluff, MB) -- When I was a kid, in the 1950's, our neighbor in Fort Garry had a barn such as this for storing his potatoes & carrots. I used to help unload potato bags through the holes in the roof. The bags were emptied down the shutes, you call skylites. His name was Odiel Lannoo, and he supplied potatoes, onions, & carrots, to Jansen Bros Produce. He would sort and bag them through the winter months, and Jansen's would pick them up on a bi-weekly basis. We would pick up the small potatoes, to feed to our cattle.
Don & Cheryle McClure (R.M. of Rosser) -- On my parents farm they said that the first barn built there was one like this. It burnt in a fire with hogs killed inside and later a regular barn was built. Sunken like this on open prairie it was warmer for the animals and was often the first barn shelter for animals when new people moved into Manitoba. Our family mainly had pigs in it and some chickens. Other animals like horses and cows had heavier coats in winter and ranged freely most of the time. Our family came to Manitoba in 1919 from Ontario.
Patrick Gowryluk [location ?] -- -- Bill and Anne Gowryluk operated this farmstead, where they raised seven sons. In 1986, they were expropriated from the farmstead to make way for the twinning of Hwy 44.The building shown is known as a root cellar. The root cellar's main purpose was to store potatoes, approximately 375,000 lbs when full! Because the building was built below ground, it was able to store the potatoes without ever having to heat the storage facility.
The "skylights" (in image #3) is where the potatoes were brought into the root cellar. During harvest time, a potato digger would dig the potatoes from the ground and place them on top of the soil. In the early years, potato pickers would pick the potatoes from the field and place them into a pail, which would then be dumped into burlap bags. The bags would then be lifted onto a wooden trailer and transported to the root cellar.
The bags would then be dumped into the "skylights". The "skylight" opening would have a canvas chute attached, which ran from the opening of the skylight to the floor. The canvas chute would cushion the potatoes as they went down into the cellar. A person at the bottom of the chute would hold on and guide the potatoes into the various areas of the root cellar (how else would you get the potatoes to the corner of the building?).
In the latter years, the potatoes would still be picked into pails, which were then dumped into a "potato truck". The potato truck would then transport the potatoes to the root cellar, and unloaded onto a conveyer. The conveyer would then bring the potatoes to the skylights (the canvas chute though was still used to guide and place the potatoes into the cellar).
At the end of harvest, the skylights would be covered up and filled with insulation to protect the potatoes from the cold. During the winter, the potatoes would be sorted and cleaned, placed into 75 lb burlap bags, and sold to the many customers that visited the farmstead, transported directly to homes or to vegetable wholesalers located in Winnipeg.
The first section of the root cellar (image #1) was built in 1948. The hole for the root cellar was dug out by a tractor pulling a dredging bucket (about 3 feet wide). Once the hole was dug, concrete was mixed on site and spread out for the floor of the root cellar. Cinder blocks were used for the 8-foot walls.
Initially, a rounded roof made of bricks was constructed. When the forms were taken off, the roof fell in, mainly because the building of the roof was done a number of months (while tending to the crops). This did not allow for the mortar to be properly set. After that first failed attempt, a second roof was erected made of wood, covered with cedar singles. The earth that was dug out for the cellar was then placed against the wall for insulation purposes.
Approximately 5 years later, a second section was built (the hole shown in Image #2). This addition partially collapsed in the late 80's, due to water eroding the sides. A bulldozer later pushed in the walls of this section. The root cellar was used till 1986 (almost 40 years!). In the picture, you will notice the building has only a few cedar shakes left - that is because someone bought the used cedar shakes to be used on another building!
Kelly Golembiski [location ?] -- The sunken barn in one of your pictures is very similar to one that used to be on Henderson Highway near Gonor, Manitoba.I remember as a young child, I asked my mother what that was because she was raised in that area pretty much her whole life. She informed me that it was an outdoor cold storage for potatoes.
Joshua Warkentin [location ?] -- I have found another sunken barn roughly in the same area as the one pictured on your website. Here are the pictures of it at --winnipeg.urbex.ca/House/index01.htm --.