Books
Dusting Off the Old Ones was published in 1961 by W. B. Clarke, Miles City, Montana.
The Long Barn is Gone
If you have been to the airport lately, you have probably noticed that the Long Barn in the 800 block on North Seventh Street is not there any more. This barn does not go back into the early history of our community, but it has been there quite a while and most everyone who drove a car past it once in a while and wondered just how long it would stay there. The barn was built along about 1916 by two of the shrewdest horsetraders to ever grace our fair community. They were L. W. Davis and Fred Withrow. Don't confuse this L. W. Davis with the gentleman by the same name now employed by the Miles City Mercantile Company. Fred Withrow is still a resident of our community, being at the present time employing his horse trading talents as a used car salesman for the Love Motor Company. The barn was built primarily for a sales stable but it became a rather sort of a rendezvous for the north side freighters. You must remember that in those days the automobile was not as universally used as it is today, and that most of the grain and supply hauling was done by team and wagon. A blind man by the name of Edward Baie succeeded Davis and Withrow in the ownership of the property, and in 1920, the administrator of his estate sold the property to Tom Moore, who now resides about 6 miles out on the Jordan road. Tom is a Kentuckian and in those days was quite a horsetrader in his own right. Several other horsetraders either rented the property or owned it. Among these were A. W. Morrison, Frank Newlun, Roy Bascom, Adolph Ratmand, Jack Wiles, Charlie Forey, Floyd Wilson and a fellow by the name of Freeland. The county took title to the property in 1928, and immediately sold it to Ole Skaro, who lived in a portion of the building until the time of his death, renting the other portion to several persons for different purposes. The building got into such a state of disrepair that the heirs of the owner gave the barn itself to some fellow to tear it down. What will take its place is anyone's guess.