How a century-old cattle barn became a big Minnesota wedding venue

MURRAY COUNTY, Minn. — There's a 95-year-old barn in Murray County with quite the story.

"Very small towns, very homey area, everybody's a family. That's a big part of what I love around here," Thresa Daniels said.

Daniels also loves the farm feel of Murray County, which is fitting because she spends most of her days working in a barn.

"It was a cattle barn. There were animals in here, dirt floor, cattle stalls," she said.

The building served that purpose for nearly 80 years before it pulled up stakes and moved cross-county.

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It was loaded onto a flatbed trailer and slowly moved seven miles to its new home near Lake Shetek in 1999. But the move and the years were starting to take a toll.

That's when Daniels' dad, Terry Carlson, and his crew got an idea.

"Just seeing that it was going to go backwards and it wasn't going to get fixed up and it wasn't going to get done, and we had the resources to do it," Carlson said.

So, they decided to turn the barn into a bar and entertainment venue called Breezy Point Tavern, replacing the old tavern that sat there. They gave it a makeover, all while keeping much of its century-old character intact. It took them about half a year to repurpose the rural relic.

"Like these chandeliers here, my wife insisted we add a little glamour with the barn for weddings and stuff, and that was her idea to have them," Carlson said.

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Upstairs, weddings and receptions have become popular. So have winter pool tournaments.

"We bring five tables up. I've got a gate here I can take off. Crane comes over and we lift them up, come in with five tables here and three downstairs," he said.

Bar and restaurant customers have replaced the cattle downstairs and even the buffalo that once roamed the barn. Outside, the Breezy Bar is the Breezy Barnyard, which is what they call their campground that opens May 1.

The idea behind all of this is to prove that people will drive anywhere for a good time, even to the middle of nowhere.

"It's not regulars you have here. It's friends and new friends," Daniels said. "I think it's turned out better than I ever thought."

The building was voted Minnesota's Barn of the Year in 2008. Daniels and Carlson would like to thank everyone who helped them repurpose the barn and the locals who keep coming back.

Breezy Point Tavern is located about a mile from Lake Shetek.