The year was 1912 when homesteaders Arthur and Philip Mellott were approached by operators of Panhandle Lumber, a sawmill four miles north of the Mellott farm in Ione, Washington. The brothers needed to "prove" their federal land claim by showing progress on the ground and what Panhandle offered would go far toward satisfying the requirement. If Panhandle could get their timber harvests to the Pend Oreille River by crossing Mellott land, the north-flowing current would carry the logs to Panhandle's sawmill. In exchange for access, a barn would be built onsite, free of charge. Constructed on the pasture floor, with no foundation other than horizontal wood skids, the barn took shape. Inside thick, wide wood planks were fastened atop horizontal logs for a rustic floor. Animal stalls would be on the North, and hay storage would be in the loft and on the South side. In the early 1980s, a newly minted structural engineer from Sewell & Associates of Newport, Washington