On top of the foundation is a ring (girder) of green elm wood 1"x12" boards, soaked in water and bent to curve in a circle. The frame is made by 2'x6" & 2"x 12" green elm wood.

A steam sawmill was brought in to cut the elm trees into dimensional wood.  Using the trees from the woods on the farm.  Four to six (4-6) carpenters spent four (4) months on this construction, getting room & board during the week, sleeping in the granary and the food made by the family. From sunrise to sunset, everyday except Sunday, for an average of four months start to finish.

This page is a photo "Barn Raising" sequence of steps in building a Round Barn in the early 1900's, from the ground up.

The concrete foundation and silo for the round barn were built the year before the wooden walls and roof. Because it usually took all summer to build the forms and pour both of them.

The barn would eventually be 60 feet in diameter, have 8' high, hand mixed, hand poured concrete foundation walls and silo.

In 1980,

127 round barns still stood in Iowa, 136 barns in Wisconsin, Minnesota 178, 154 in Indiana, Michigan estimated 25, South Dakota 36, North Dakota 17,  Nebraska reported 32, Vermont 24, west in Colorado 1, California 3, Oregon 1 or 2, and Montana 1, Kansas 12+, New Mexico 1, New Jersey 1.

The form used to pour the foundation and silo were 1"x 6" boards (both poured 12" inches thick, using fieldstone off the fields as filler.) and were later used for the sidewalls - sheathed over with cedar lap siding. Silo dimensions - 15'x50', rafters up to 42' long and having no supports.  In fact, the silo and wall braces, solely support the huge roof.