Red Barn History from Dennis Troendle
Updated: Aug 1, 2022
Dennis and Barb Troendle bought Red Barn from his parents in 1987 but his family owned it for many years before that. Dennis sat down with Elizabeth to tell a few tales about their time at Red Barn so today's blog post will highlight a few of his many stories about Red Barn.
So you don't miss any of the fun stories, details, and facts that Dennis had to share I decided it was easiest for you to have these all stored below in a dropdown menu style in a list format so you can read through the history that Dennis shared in an hour chat with Elizabeth.
How to: You can click the title or arrow to open each item below along with browse by the title what stories, facts, and details you're most interested in reading about.
Tales of when his parents owned Red Barn & the early days of Red Barn Campground & Restaurant:
- His dad's requirement for the campground was it had to be along a highway and on water so when this farm that's now known as Red Barn Campground & Restaurant came up for sale, he bought it and that was the start of Red Barn.
- They got the idea to start a campground from their many trips to Canada and Yellowstone fishing in the spring once the crops were in.
- Red barn used to be 340 acres total back when his dad first bought the property to turn Red Barn into a campground. All the acreage was used between the campground and various activities.
- They used to rent out snowmobiles and even horses!
- His dad tried to make a ski slope at Red Barn for the visitors to use.
- His dad worked construction along with the farm and owned Red Barn.
- His dad had snowmobile clubs, 3-wheeler clubs, tractor clubs, and camping clubs that would come down. They would come around the Red Barn for at least 15 years. The pavilion was built so all the clubs would have a place to gather by the creek!
- Birthday parties and even weddings were hosted at Red Barn!
Fun and maybe even shocking facts:
- When his dad ran the Red Barn Campground & Restaurant the main office had hay in it, it was still a barn. So the barn that you sit in enjoying your meal and a drink, check-in for the weekend camping, you can think that back in the day when you would check in you'd still see hay up in the hayloft.
- Before Red Barn was created there wasn't much tourism around the area, it was a full-blown farming community as you would expect back then.
- "You're a half hour within many main trout streams here at Red Barn which is as good as it gets!" - Dennis
- Just out of high school Dennis and Deb built their house right across from Red Barn.
- The story of the corn crib floating down the stream is down below!
Red Barn Campground & Restaurant has become a generational tradition for many campers:
- Dennis shared that over time you would see that the early campers that would bring their friends and families soon would continue the tradition of bringing their own friends and families as their families aged. There are still campers today that are related to some of the first campers such as back in the day when Red Barn Campground & Restaurant was created.
- By now the people that have the seasonal campers at Red Barn are on their 3rd or 4th generation by now, upgrading the campers their original family members put there, and continuing to bring their friends and family to Red Barn.
- The guests have always treated Red Barn like their home for the season because it was their home!
- All of the seasonal families that came say that it's their home away from home and they look forward to it.
There was a 4 Wheel Drive 3 Day Racing Event in the field next to Red Barn that people across the United States came to!
- They used to have modified and semi-modified races down in the field next to Red Barn. It was a 3-day event. It's called a 4-wheel drive event. People all the way from Texas would come to spend a week up here.
-They had concessions at the event and would serve breakfast during the morning.The IGA wasn't open yet and they couldn't get gas so they had to drive all the way to La Crosse to get eggs and other groceries. "We don't have pictures of the event to share because we were working it. We weren't able to see much of it since we were so busy!"
Story of the Corn Crib Floating Down the Stream
The corn crib that was turned into a cabin and later on ended up floating down the creek at Red Barn. Thankfully no visitors were inside and it wasn't rented that day! Younger couples with kids loved this option because it was next to the creek and set up to have family accommodations. Dennis said that it was 1-2 years after they sold the Red Barn. The corn crib was only 6-8 feet away from the stream, so when the stream flooded the crib went with it one time. "Apparently it looked like a fishing bobber going down the stream."