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May 11, 2024

What’s Inside the Twin Barns at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge?

Share via: Look closely. The twin barns at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge possess clues about history and high-tech practices. Along with housing frozen bird specimens and old

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Look closely. The twin barns at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge possess clues about history and high-tech practices. Along with housing frozen bird specimens and old park signs, the twin barns represent the story of a land changed and an agricultural period passing. They remind visitors of both the past and the future of the delta.

After the Medicine Creek Treaty removed the Nisqually Tribe from the area, land claims put the site under the ownership of pioneer settlers. Among a chronology of owners, Alson Brown owned 2,300 acres on the delta from 1904 to 1919. His advanced practices were recognized, and his farm products reached merchants throughout the South Sound.

New landowners built the twin barns in 1932 as replacements to Brown’s barn lost to fire. The twin Gothic arch roofs allowed for optimal hay storage. Vents just below the roofline and cupolas at the roof ridge provided necessary ventilation. From the viewing platform next to the north barn, look up at the hay hood, and you can see the metal hay trolly that lifted and carried hay into the loft 40 feet above.

No blueprints remain, but similar barns of this type were often mail-order, kit-barns. Pre-cut and labeled materials were shipped by rail from businesses like Sears, Roebuck and Company to be erected by hired hands. Impressively, two long rows of beams, made of five, 2-inch by 12-inch timbers, run the 140-foot length of each barn and rest atop rows of 8-inch by 8-inch columns.

Long rows of plentiful windows on each side, very common for dairy operations of their time, provided ample light and ventilation to minimize health issues. Window dimensions and number, 22 on each side, were chosen based on square footage and number of animals, which was 80 cows in each barn.

While the general public is not allowed to collect and keep bird feathers or bird bodies due to careful health regulations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is. They log and store specimens in a standard chest freezer in the north barn.

“When we find dead birds in good condition, we have a federal permit to collect them. In some cases, we may want to test specimens if we suspect disease or other significant causes,” says Nisqually refuge Visitor Services Manager Julia Pinnix. “Often, we collect for our education program. We have thousands of students visit each year and use feathers, wings and whole birds to teach them about adaptations and other subjects. High quality specimens may be taxidermied for display in our education center. The point of all this is to take advantage of the opportunity to use the birds we find so we gain value from them for research and public education.”

Long term volunteer, past president and former board member of Friends of Nisqually, John Keith once helped transport a very unique bird. “The snowy owl is a very rare bird for the refuge. It is a Canadian bird and doesn’t ordinarily come down this far,” says Keith. “Finding one close to the refuge that could be mounted was an extraordinary opportunity. I was president of the Friends of Nisqually at the time, and we had enough money to support sending the bird to a taxidermist. Davy Clark, the head of the education program at the time, and I went to the twin barns and recovered the frozen owl. We received a certificate that authorized our possession and transport of the bird to a local taxidermist. The bird is on display now at the education center. It came out just amazing, and it’s a wonderful example of a very interesting owl that we rarely see.”

Specimens not kept for educational purposes are most often left to another important purpose, to be used by mother nature herself.

As the refuge is along the migration path of many bird species, monitoring the visits is important. Also from the observation deck, notice the automated radio-telemetry tower behind the south barn. U.S. Fish and Wildlife erected the Motus Wildlife Tracking System tower in 2022, and it is part of an international system that tracks bird movement. Birds that have been tagged with tiny radio transmitters called nano tags send out a signal when they are near the tower. A Swainson’s thrush, a saw-whet owl, a hoary bat and a dunlin shorebird have all triggered a signal here.

Farming ceased on the delta, and the land was preserved, much to the efforts of local citizens, conservationist Margaret McKenny and the Nisqually Delta Association. Purchased by U.S. Fish and Wildlife in 1974, the delta farmland was saved from proposed plans such as a garbage dump or a possible deep-water port.

The Nisqually River delta is a special place and is part of the ancestral home of the Nisqually Tribe. The barns stand as a reminder of an agricultural time period that took place there, and their deterioration may be interpreted as a sign of an era passing and the return of an estuary to the land.

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