Many Remember Arthur’s Barn as a Community Icon

a fired destroyed the building thursday

ARTHUR, N.D. —  After burning to the ground in a Thursday afternoon fire, people are remembering the memories they created at Arthur’s Bar.

It includes everyone from the venue’s previous owners to the musicians who played on their stage for years.

Love isn’t just found in other people, it’s also found in places.

For many people across North Dakota, Arthur’s Barn was one of those places that tugged at their heartstrings.

“It’s just the little things. The smell and the sounds. It’s a loss,” said Shawn Smalley, band leader of October Road.

A huge loss not just for musicians who played at Arthur’s Barn but also for Eric Johnson and his family.
The barn burned down in a Thursday afternoon fire which is still under investigation.

“Yesterday was tough, it was a really tough day because very literally, you’re looking at something that’s a huge part of your life that doesn’t exist anymore,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s family opened the popular venue, previously known as Johnson’s Barn, in February 1952.

Eric Johnson’s grandparents’ barn burned down the year before and then they threw a fundraiser for the local fire department for putting out the flames.

“Eight hundred people showed up and so my grandpa thought well, you know if I charge $1 a piece, this might be a decent little deal so they started having it and it kind of snowballed from there,” Johnson said.

In 2015, the Johnson family decided to sell the barn because Eric’s father had Parkinson’s disease.
He says when it came time to picking the new owners, the Arthur family was the perfect fit.

“We knew really, really quickly that they wanted to maintain this tradition and they wanted it to continue in a similar way and to really honor the history but also make it their own and put their own stamp on it. That meant a lot to us,” Johnson said.

Some musicians say they were worried about the sale.

“When anybody takes over a business, that you’ve especially been performing at a long time, you’re kind of like ‘ehhh, I don’t know’ and the first time I met them, I was like, these are the right people,” Smalley said.

Smalley says he doesn’t understand why tragedy had to knock on the family’s door.

“When tragedy happens, it hurts everybody but they’re really great people like that, it’s even more it’s just like why them? It’s just ugh I don’t know,” Smalley said.

Smalley says bands which played at the barn are working on a fundraiser to pay off loans the family took out to pay for the barn and to replace their personal belongings lost in the fire.