"I've seen that barn somewhere before," you say. Well, perhaps you have.

Mail Pouch Tobacco advertised on barn sides throughout 15 states. The signs became familiar sights along our nation's highways during the first half of the twentieth century.

Lanesville, Indiana, is home to this 1904 German bank barn built on the site of its burned predecessor along Highway 62. For fifty-eight years it remained unadorned. Then, in November 1963, barn painter Harley Warrick transformed it into an area "landmark".

With the coming of the Interstate Highway System and the regulations regarding advertisements along our roadways, scenes like MAIL POUCH BARN will soon be gone. Harley was the last Mail Pouch barn painter in America, but retired in 1991. It now falls to the artists to preserve this slice of Americana.

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RAY DAY
ray@rayday.com