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No barn door to close ... By BILL CHOY Ashland Daily Tidings Nancy Kinsey looked fondly at priceless family memories preserved in more than 90-year-old photographs. In one of the framed pictures, her grandfather William Lindsay is standing with pride next to his Clydesdale horse Royalist, with the Lily Glen barn right behind them. Nancy Kinsey displays old family photographs, some of which include Lily Barn, which her forebears built almost 100 years ago in Jackson County. Ashland Daily Tidings/satsuki doi The large barn, which was built nearly 100 years ago in the Howard Prairie area off of Dead Indian Memorial Road was destroyed by fire on Sept. 7th. "I feel very nostalgic," Kinsey, 58, of Medford, said as she looked at the photos. "It's wonderful to have a piece of family history. ... It's something I will pass on to my son (Todd Kinsey, 28, of Medford). He doesn't know all about his history and this helps him quite a bit. You don't get another chance if you don't save items like these." Lily Glen barn was built by hand by Kinsey's family - the Lindsays - nearly 100 years ago, and had been a popular site for equestrian events for decades. It was listed on the Jackson County register of historic places. The barn was framed with timbers joined with wooden pegs. It measured 60 feet wide and some beams were 60 feet long, hewn from single logs. "They built it themselves," Kinsey said. "The barn held so much history for my family and the community." The barn was fully engulfed in flames by the time firefighters reached it the evening of Sept. 7. The Office of the State Fire Marshal said the fire was human-caused. There was not enough evidence to determine if the blaze was set accidentally or on purpose, and the case was closed, fire officials said. Kinsey cried when she heard the news the barn was destroyed, she said. The finality of it all struck her when she visited where the barn stood a few days after the fire. "It was still smoldering," she said. "When you see these big pieces of timber smoking you knew a piece of history that you didn't want to see disappear was gone." Her great-grandmother Margaret Lindsay homesteaded the ranch in 1898, shortly after the death of her husband in Ashland, according to Southern Oregon Historical Society documents. The family was originally from Scotland and had first immigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada, before heading to California and finally moving to Ashland. The family, which included her two grown sons, Charles and William Lindsay, settled down on the ranch, which gradually expanded from 160 acres to 1,800 acres. Margaret Lindsay named the ranch Lily Glen because of the abundance of mountain lilies that grew in the area. It was also known around town as the Lindsay Ranch. They kept 300 fine-haired Angora goats, and milked 20 to 30 cows, with the cream carried to Ashland a few times a week. The family also kept several Clydesdale horses. The farm was also a hub of activity in the area. A post office operated at the ranch from 1901 to 1909 and Margaret Lindsay was known to welcome travelers who journeyed on Dead Indian Memorial Road through Howard Prairie. "My dad told me [Margaret Lindsay] could hear the buggies coming up from the bottom of the valley," Kinsey recalled. "By the time they got up, dinner was ready." The Lindsays also built a small sawmill, which provided lumber for several cabins, some of which are still standing at Lake of the Woods. After Margaret Lindsay passed away in 1916, Charles Lindsay lived at Lily Glen until 1940, when he sold the farm to other Ashland area ranchers. In the early 1960's, the ranch was sold and transformed into an equestrian park. The barn was the center piece of the property. Currently, Jackson County leases the barn area from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The many tales Kinsey heard about the ranch and barn came from her father David, who passed away in 1992, and his brothers, Henry, who died in 1993, and Roland, who passed away in 2001. "We heard those stories over and over again," she said. "We kicked ourselves for not taping their tales or writing it down. They knew all the stories and now a lot of them are gone." David Lindsay and his brothers spent their childhood at the ranch and barn and worked at the family's sawmill and at the ranch. Kinsey has several pictures of her dad and his brothers at the ranch. She especially likes a photo of her dad and his brother working on the roof of the barn in the summer, and one of them standing deep in snow on the ranch in the winter. "It meant so much to them," she said. "It was part of who they were." When her father passed away, some of his ashes were scattered in the barn. "That's where he wanted them," Kinsey said. "It was a place that he loved." Marjorie Lindsay, 81, of Ashland - Henry Lindsay's widow - said she never saw the barn before moving to town in 1946 - but felt she knew it before she ever laid eyes on it. "I heard about it so much from Henry I pretty much had a picture in my mind by the time I saw it," she said. "It meant a lot to all the brothers. It was part of their history." Kinsey, who was born and raised in the area, recalled many fond memories of exploring the barn as a child. "I remembered how big it was and how fun it was to play in," she said. Kinsey also loved to ride horses on the property. "Me and my cousins would ride our horses up near the barn," she said. "I have a lot of good memories of just riding around." LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. 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