Bell Farm, established in 1882 by William Robert Bell, covers ten square miles (16 km²) or 60,000 acres in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. The Bell Farm Barn, now among the top ten most endangered sites listed by the Heritage Canada Foundation, featured a round structure with a silo that also served as a lookout tower. This silo had a capacity of 4,000 bushels of oats and 100 tons of hay, and the barn was designed to house 36 horses and an office. The silo’s central location reduced labor for livestock feeding and provided a more durable facility compared to rectangular barns.
The first settlers arrived in 1882, ahead of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The scale of farming operations often attracted passenger trains, making the farm a local tourist attraction.
The initial buildings included a 16-room, two-story stone house, four stone and two frame cottages, an ice house, a cow barn, and a chicken house. The farm was divided into 200-acre sections, each supervised by a foreman, with phone lines connecting the entire property—one of the first two phone lines in the North West Territories. By 1886, the farm was equipped with 45 reapers, 78 ploughs, 6 mowers, 40 seeders, 80 harrows, and seven steam threshers to cultivate 5,000 acres of wheat, oats, and potatoes. Livestock at that time included 200 horses, 250 cattle, and 900 hogs, along with wooden granaries on wheels, a grain elevator, and a flour mill.
Major Bell’s plan to establish an Agricultural College included a $12,000 building intended to attract Dr. Tanner, a renowned agricultural professor. However, only the building was completed.
In response to the collapsing farmhouse due to deteriorating mortar, Dave Aldous initiated a campaign to save Bell Farm. His letter reached Frank Korvemaker, who later founded the Bell Barn Society and wrote a book on stone buildings. Korvemaker, experienced in heritage preservation, also contributed to preserving the Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site. The Bell Barn Society, founded in 2006, aimed to restore the barn and raise public awareness. They received $50,000 from James Richardson International (JRI) for the restoration and for creating an interpretive center for Western Canadian Agriculture. JRI, celebrating 150 years in Canada, supported the effort, which also received backing from the Heritage Canada Foundation, the Saskatchewan Architectural Heritage Society, local historians, schools, and businesses.
In April 2008, the 126-year-old stone farm was dismantled for reconstruction. The site will feature a reconstructed barn with a sheet-metal roof and ventilation features, along with an 8-sided cupola. The reconstruction is estimated to cost $1 million. An 1883 Bell Farm cottage is preserved at the Indian Head Museum. The provincial and federal governments will not grant heritage status because the barn is not being rebuilt on its original site. Nevertheless, the original site will be preserved with the lower foot of the original building left for archaeological study.

Type of Data Point - Basic Data Point - Source Wikipedia

Bell Farm (Indian Head, Saskatchewan) - Wikipedia

Visit page of the element - Bell Farm

Inserted: 07-09-2024 01:09:34