Wander here and there throughout the U.S., and you will find barns. Big barns. Little barns. Red barns. Grey barns. Wood barns. Stone barns. The true barn aficionado will say with a grin, "I never met a barn I didn't like." Every heritage barn has a story, and when you come across especially grand barns, the story will likely include the part about the original owner having first made his money some way other than farming — lumbering, mining, shipping — before giving farming a try. Or, the barns may have been built as part of research operations, state institution farms or educational campuses, such as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan (1855), which became Michigan State University. Regretfully, most of these extraordinary barns are gone, but those that remain are cause for celebration and preservation. Such is the case in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where "when pine was king," the Kirby Carpenter Lumber Co. of Menominee, Mich., bought and ha...