Barns paint a picture for visitors

TOLEDO (AP) -- The popularity of Ohio's bicentennial barns hasn't diminished -- even though the milestone they were honoring has passed.
People are still visiting the barns painted to celebrate the state's 200th birthday in March 2003.
"I figured, when it was over, that would be it," said Scott Hagan, who painted the bicentennial logo on barns in each of Ohio's 88 counties. "It's 2004, almost 2005, and people are still stopping at them."
People followed Hagan as he painted the structures and others began traveling the state to take a photograph of each barn.
"Every weekend, there's somebody stopping by," said Jim Lowe, owner of Ottawa County's bicentennial barn in northwest Ohio.
Philip Zuver, who owns a barn in Williams County, said most people stop by on the weekends while trying to see several barns in a day.
"I see a lot of people just pulling up, jumping out, snapping a picture, and then they are on their way," he said.
One barn in southeast Ohio's Hocking County was so popular that when it was razed to make room for a gas station, people paid Hagan about $1,650 to paint another barn to replace it.
"I don't think the year has anything to do with it," said Roger Shaw, who owns the Hocking Hills Market and the property where the newly painted barn stands. "And they're beautiful. It's a work of art. It's a great honor to have one. ... Not a day goes by that someone doesn't come by and take a picture of it."
Norm and Shannon Bash of Port Clinton in northern Ohio took more than a year to travel to all the barns and take between 3,000 and 4,000 photographs.
For information on the barns, visit www.ohio200.org/barns.