The Urbain Cote Round Barn near
Dunseith, North Dakota, United States, is a
round barn
A round barn is a historic barn design that could be octagonal, polygonal, or circular in plan. Though round barns were not as popular as some other barn designs, their unique shape makes them noticeable. The years from 1880 to 1920 represent ...
that was built in 1943. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1986.
[ (pages 27-28 in North Dakota Round Barns TR) and ]
History
The owners, the Cote family, were French-Canadian
French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the prov ...
immigrants from Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada (, also the Eastern provinces, Canadian East or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of Hudson Bay/ Hudson Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newf ...
who immigrated and purchased the farm in 1943 and built the barn the same year. In the years before World War II, the Cotes specialized in barn construction; they modeled the barn after the Levi Glick Round Barn in Surrey, 100 miles southwest of Dunseith. The Glick barn was built in 1923 with hollow clay tile walls and a central silo.
The Cotes Barn was constructed of masonry walls, "double mow floor, gracious stairway, decorative shingling, lack of interior silo, and opposing dormers for ventillation." It is significant due to its dual use of housing cattle on the first floor and dances on the second. Its hay loft floor has "double floor boards, an unusual expenditure of materials in hay loft floors. The barn was used by roller skaters during the 1950s and shows little wear or sagging." The Cotes were reportedly so proud of the barn, they shingled the domed roof with eight different colors of shingles.
In a 1976 State Historical Society of North Dakota
The State Historical Society of North Dakota is an agency that preserves and presents history through museums and historic sites in the state of North Dakota. The agency operates the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, which serves as a hi ...
survey, the barn was identified as the only surviving barn of its type. A 1986 survey about round barn locations found it to be the barn "most frequently mentioned". In 2000, the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the National Park Service provided a grant to restore and re-shingle the roof and restore the barn doors.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cote, Urbain, Round Barn
Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in North Dakota
Buildings and structures completed in 1943
Canadian-American culture in North Dakota
French-Canadian American history
Round barns in North Dakota
National Register of Historic Places in Rolette County, North Dakota
1943 establishments in North Dakota