Henry Moore's Dream

Henry Moore had a dream. The dream became a reality in 1968 when, at the age of 58, Mr. Moore, a retired farmer, asked his grandchildren if they would like him to build a miniature barn. With an enthusiastic “yes!”, a dream was born and is now a permanent exhibit at the Barn Museum in South Amana. The miniatures moved from the Black Hills, and the village horse barn was refurbished into a museum and opened in July 1976.

Building Mini-Americana

Mini-Americana is the largest known collection of miniature replicas built by one man, woodworker Henry Moore (1911–1983).

Following a scale of one inch to one foot, Mini-Americana is a unique display of over 200 miniatures that depict the history of rural America. Each building, an exact replica of an original structure either past or present, took an average of six months to complete.

Detail and Craftsmanship

Each exhibit is finished in complete detail, inside and out: Shingles are fashioned from real cedar, siding is worked to exact proportions, and windowpanes are made of real glass. Houses have curtains; the blacksmith shop has a forge; and the barns have pens, mangers and even movable stanchions. Activities abound from fertile imaginations.

Mini-Americana is a warm, personal experience filled with educational history, architecture and wonderment. Many of our visitors have commented that it is a “trip worth taking for the young and old alike.”