People still flock to bicentennial barns

[madinmaryland]

TOLEDO, Ohio (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. People in one county even had the artist who painted the barns paint another to replace a bicentennial barn that was demolished.
"I figured, when it was over, that would be it," said Scott Hagan, who painted the bicentennial's 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 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. "I don't get to talk to too many of them. They're in and out before you know it."
Philip Zuver, who owns the barn that was painted 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.
The barn was so popular in southeast Ohio's Hocking County that people there recently paid Hagan about $1,650 to paint another bicentennial barn to replace the one that was razed to make room for a gas station.
(Page 5 of Today's Kenton Times)