After I did as much research as I could, I called the man and asked how many of the beams he had left.
He told me he had about 40 or so. I immediately said I want to buy the rest of them.
Once I said that he became a little hesitant.
There was an awkward pause on the phone.
I wasn't sure what to say.
After the few seconds of silence , he spoke up and said. "well....what you going to do with these beams.
I told him that I own Rustic Ridge Table Co. and we wanted to make some tables with them. Everything that we made has to have a great story behind it and this fit that criteria perfectly.
That seemed like a good enough answer to him and he said, "OK, I'll see you tomorrow."
The next day I drove 2 hours back to the middle of nowhere Tennessee to retrieve these beams.
I told myself that I was sure these were the beams from the barrel house 1-14, but in reality I still had just a little skepticism
As I looked over all the beams I also had my phone out looking at pictures on google images of the inside of the barrel house and comparing those pictures to the beams I was buying
.
On the bottom of the pile of beams I came across two huge wooden braces cut in a unique way with holes that looked like they were for some really big pegs.
I have NEVER seen any braces like this before from any of the reclaimed wood projects we have done.
While looking at them I found a picture online of the barrel house that showed the braces, and guess what?
They were exactly the same size, same cut and everything
I was now 100% convinced this gentleman was telling me the truth.
After I loaded up all the beams I asked the gentleman why he didn't just come right out yesterday and tell me where these beams came from.
He said, "I don't know, I guess I was just being a good keeper of this history."