Hundreds of Amish Men Pick Up & “Walk” A Barn (21 Images & Video)

In another remarkable video, a whole lot of Amish people pick up and “walk” a large barn structure to a new location on the property.

There aren’t a ton of details given – no explanation of why the barn is being moved. But overall, this might be the most complex Amish barn move I’ve come across – in a long line of them (more on that below).

Update: This move happened in Geauga County, Ohio (more specifically Troy Township near Burton, OH), and it was the barn of an Amishman named Nelson Yoder. Kim Breyley brings her article “How Do You Move a 35,000 Pound Barn?” to my attention, giving the back story of the move. I’ve added some of those details throughout the post – and you can read her article in full here.

In the video you can see a huge crowd of Amish men gather, then pick up the barn from one foundation, move it a little ways away, pause, then partially turn the barn before moving it to another foundation waiting at the new location.

That is an awful lot of work to reposition a barn just a short distance away, but as always, there must be good reason for it. We get an answer to this question in Kim Breyley’s article – Nelson Yoder decided to move an old machinery barn to a more convenient location to be used in his poly furniture business.

How many people are involved?

The uploader, Joe Brilla Jr. of BrillaVision, provides a simple description (as well as the nice video title: “Walking the barn”):

Our Amish neighbors needed to move one of their storage barns, so with the help of 800 friends and relatives, they picked it up and moved it.

Now, that’s quite a lot of people in the screenshot above. We see them gathered around just prior to starting.

I don’t think there are 800 people actually moving that barn – although the number looks to be in the hundreds. But it may very well be the case that around 800 attended, helped with prep, spectated, cheered them on, etc.

Kim Breyley’s article suggests maybe I am underestimating what is visible in the video: “‘Early into the planning, I was concerned about getting enough help,’ said Nelson. ‘The plain community responded in droves.  We needed 800 and received responses suggesting there might be as many as 900…Not only did they have more than 800 Amish men show up but with much curiosity, the neighboring community showed as well to see this great feat.'”

In the image below, the men move toward the barn to take up their positions.

Men continue moving into position. I can imagine there was a ton of prep work that went into setting this up.

Here they do a “test lift” before setting it down again.

Coordinating the Move

There are some other interesting things here as far as coordinating this move.

First, note the handful of Amish men wearing bright yellow safety vests. I suppose these are involved in coordinating and/or directing the action, and are wearing the safety vests to be more easily identified.

To that end, also note the amplifier/speaker here.

There is one Amish man with a microphone, who is presumably the barn move leader. It’s the man in the white shirt, who I’ve zoomed in on in the photo below:

His instructions are presumably delivered through the speaker, since it’s such a large group involved (the video has no sound). Kim Breyley adds: “It was Nelson’s brother, John Yoder, who did the directing the night of the move. He stood on the farm wagon across from the barn with a portable microphone and guided the movers.”

In the shot below, the barn has begun its “walk” (in the direction of the camera).

When the barn is picked up, the speaker is picked up and moved as well – and repositioned as the Amishman on the mic delivers instructions.

Prior to starting, the men in yellow vests also go to him several times to consult or deliver information.

I’ll also note that it looks like parts of the barn (siding) have been removed in order to make it a lighter lift.

Moving the Barn into final place

The men first move it over to one corner of the shot…

…before setting it down to prepare for the final action.

They first rotate the front bit, then start in a the direction of the new foundation.

Amish ladies watching:

And here it is getting settled onto its new location.

The move complete, the men disperse:

Really an amazing feat, put together in a spirit of community cooperation, and executed – from all I can tell- exceptionally well. Bravo.

Summarizing the move: “After a practice lift, the men moved the building north off the foundation with ease, then northeast (approx. 200 ft.) until the building was lined up with the new foundation. They then set it down and turned to face south. Still under the direction of John Yoder, each stepped over the north end of the new foundation and moved southward. With each corner above the new foundation, they were then instructed to set the building down. The older machinery building fit perfectly flush to the new foundation. All went according to plan and the entire move took less than a half hour.”

Worth watching the full video below, which is just 100 seconds in length, and be sure to check out Kim’s article linked above for more of the details.