The Rainbow Barn. A Childhood Legacy. Gone.
Somewhere over the rainbow where dreams come true. Countless times have I driven past this icon built for kids; a barn in a cow pasture painted with colors that every child knew by heart. I can remember traveling to visit family in Brookhaven, Mississippi and riding by the Rainbow Barn on Interstate 55 and staring at it the entire time as its red walls gleamed in the sunlight. For over 30 years, this barn provided a symbol of change for Mississippi. It was a symbol of hope for dreams to come true. Not only that, but for God's continued promise that the world would never be destroyed by water again.
Originally painted by John Huntington, a Copiah-Lincoln Community College's non-credit art class member in the late 1970's, the barn had been featured in numerous magazines and a calendar that I have personally seen. John was the son of the owner's barn, located on Dixie Garden's property on Dixie Gardens Road.
Well, it's gone now. Yes, gone. During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there was significant damage done to the barn and you can see the patchwork of the tin roof in the photo above from a Flikr stream. On Sunday, August 22, 2010, several severe storms tore through the area in Copiah County and eventually ruptured the barn. Now, after so many years of NOT taking photos, I regret it.
I conducted a Google search regarding the Rainbow Barn and came up with some interesting results. One result happened to be from the owner's son-in-law. "The Old Man and the Tennis Court.", posted by John Branston on Wed, Dec 23, 2009 by the Memphis Flyer.
We buried the old man last week. My father-in-law was 77 years old. He was a lifelong hunter, cattleman, and athlete in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, 30 miles south of Jackson on Interstate 55. You might have seen his "rainbow barn" when you were driving to New Orleans.
"Landmark lost during Sunday storm", by Therese Apel of the Daily Leader on Tuesday, August 24, 2010:
Many Brookhavenites knew about the "Rainbow Barn," which sat on Interstate 55 and brightened the way for passing motorists with the rainbow painted on the side.
And after Sunday night's storm, it's gone. Blythe Reid said she grew up making a wish on the rainbow every time she drove past.
"As kids our parents taught us to wave and make a wish on the barn each time you passed it," she said. "To this day I still waved! I taught my kids to wave at it."
"Copiah's Americana icon falls victim to storm", by Copiah County Courier on Tuesday, August 24, 2010:
It was a popular cultural attraction along I-55 North halfway between Exits 51 and 56, neatly tucked between a hay field and horse pasture out of the passenger side’s window. It was most spectacular in the evenings, just as the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon–bathed in a picturesque sepia. An untold number of Americans–and folks from around the world–had viewed it and even photographed it over the past four decades. And, on Sunday evening, its ever-so crippled self finally gave in to a wind gust that accompanied a late-summer thunderstorm, closing the book on a Copiah County icon.
Tagged Destinations: Copiah County Mississippi
