New home for old building

By Mark W. Olson

Carver County Historical Society volunteers spent the past several days installing a log granary on the Carver County fairgrounds.

The granary was originally built by Mayer-area settler Franz Borchardt, and dates to the 1880s. (Franz Borchardt’s initials were recently found carved into the door frame of the building.)

The granary was acquired by the Carver County Historical Society, which will use the building as its future fairground information kiosk.

The building was disassembled log by log. The pieces were labeled, and then reassembled at the fairgrounds during last week’s fair.

The process included “chinking,” or placing pieces of wood between the large openings between the logs. Volunteers then added “daub” to fill the space between the chinking. Daub was made with a mixture of hay, horse manure, mud and clay. The clay was mined from the banks of the Crow River, where the building originally stood, said society Executive Director Wendy Biorn.

The floor boards needed to be replaced and the society found a sawmill in the county that used a large circular saw, to replicate the original cuts. The boards were taken from a stand of pine trees in Chanhassen, so everything was kept “local,” Biorn said.

The project wasn’t finished by the end of the fair — it still needs some shingles and chinking on the top logs. However, finishing the project wasn’t the goal, Biorn said. Rather, the objective was demonstrating the construction process to fairgoers, she said.

The exhibit attracted 60 to 100 people every hour, Biorn estimated. “Thanks for everyone who came over to show their support,” she said.