Doncaster Round Barn

The Doncaster Round Barn near Twin Bridges is one of the most beloved and famous barns in Montana. Built in 1882, it is considered an extraordinary example of the state’s rural architecture. The barn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has a berth in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, and is featured in the book, Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana, published by the Montana Historical Society.

It so happens that the historic barn’s architect and builder was Noah Armstrong. 

Following retirement from the mining industry, Noah purchased a ranch near Twin Bridges, Madison County, as part of the groundwork for his next pursuit. Additional land purchased enlarged the spread to around four thousand acres. He settled on a name, Doncaster Ranch, in honor of the prized Standardbred stallion in his possession and hired a workforce of local cowboys, all of them experienced in ranch building and handling any chore. 

Townsfolk in Twin Bridges watched the progression of the Doncaster Round Barn rising on the plain of bunchgrass. At completion, the three-story structure was tiered like a wedding cake. It stood seventy feet from top to bottom. Coats of mineral oil fireproofed three-board-thick walls. Fear of fire was not unwarranted—wooden barns filled with hay burned hot and fast. Stable conflagrations were common. Horses usually died. The entrance to the barn accommodated ten-horse teams pulling hay wagons. The first floor of 100 feet in diameter housed the well, 18 twelve-foot-square stalls as well as a quarter-mile circular exercise track. There was an office, employee sleeping quarters, rooms for feed and tack, grooming, and veterinary care. The second floor at 76 feet in diameter stored hay and grain. The third floor, 36 feet in diameter, housed the eleven-thousand-gallon water reservoir. Noah himself engineered the ingenious water system of a windmill atop the barn roof that pumped water from the first floor well to the third-floor water reservoir. Upon release, the gravity-fed water sped downward and replenished the first-floor water troughs. A half-mile outdoor exercise track for the horses was cut out of the bunchgrass.

One of the cowboy’s hired to work the ranch was Joseph Redfern. During an interview in 1950s, he called the outfit “a show place” and said that people traveled “great distances to see the one-of-a-kind barn,” people like Samuel E. Larabie of the Deer Lodge Valley, who is featured in my book. His “critical examination” of the barn and praise for it delighted Noah’s son, Charles, who wrote, “Mr. E. S. [sic] Larabie, of our lodge, himself a distinguished patron of the turf and owner of some the finest racing stock in the country, said: ‘I am quite sure that, for elegance of design, convenience in all its appointments and general adaptability, there is nothing equal to it on any of the great horse farms in Kentucky.’”

Noah’s next step toward realizing his dream of a spectacular, yet functional, horse-breeding farm would be stocking Doncaster Round Barn, and the five more barns that he would build of more modest architecture and dimension, with Thoroughbred and Standardbred horses.