Barn at Osage Beach, Missouri

When Hive account@wesphilbin sent me this photo of a barn and said it was between Eldon and Osage Beach, Missouri, I was a bit confused at first. A beach, in Missouri...? Missouri is nowhere near the ocean!

As it turns out, Union Electric Company of St. Louis, Missouri, built a dam in 1929–1931 across the Osage River. The establishment of the dam created the Lake of the Ozarks. The lake is long and narrow, and twists along its route, looking somewhat like a dragon from overhead, so there are many good access points along the lake.^[1] Osage Beach is a small city that was established at one of the largest access points along the lake.

The screenshot from Apple Maps™, below, shows the location of the barn along US Highway 54 between Eldon and Osage Beach. Below the barn is the "head" of the dragon, the body makes a big "S" shape down towards Osage Beach, and then trails off quite a long distance to the west, twisting and turning in amazing patterns along the way. Anything that follows such a route is often described as "serpentine," since it resembles the body of a serpent, and that adjective is certainly appropriate for this lake along the circuitous path of the Osage River!

The gambrel roof (with two different slopes on each side) probably means that there is a hayloft in the barn, a mezzanine where hay can be kept. Gambrel roofs allow more headroom than a gabled roof with only one slope.

It's hard to tell if this is a barn on a working farm or not. There is evidence on satellite images that there might have been crops planted in the recent past, at least a nice-sized garden. A large field nearby shows large rolls of hay lined up, neatly, so if the landowner doesn't have livestock of his own any more, he at least sells the hay to other farmers in the area. That's probably a rather lucrative side-hustle for someone who owns a large pasture but has no livestock of their own! In fact, this barn might simply be storage for the landowner's tractor, hay-rake, and other equipment.

This is a lovely little barn with a lot of character. I like the different shades the wood has acquired over time, especially the way the uppermost boards have been washed with rusty water from the roof and been colored a reddish hue.

It's always fun (for me, at least) to explore other parts of the world via maps. When looking at all the things near this barn, I found a couple of businesses with the word "Loz" in them, such as a trailer dealership called "Loz Trailers." I didn't think much about it when I saw the first such business, but when the second "Loz" popped up, I became curious. Then it hit me — Lake of the OZarks! 😂

Thank you, Hive account@wesphilbin for thinking of me and snapping a photo of this barn as you passed it on the highway! You are named 50% beneficiary on this post! 🙂