Journeymen Bring New Lake Tenkiller Venue To Life With Historic German Barn Beams

A unique space preserving a legacy dating back 340 years is now open overlooking Lake Tenkiller.

The 1684 Venue Resort was built with a section that made a long journey from Germany to stand tall in the United States for the rest of its days.

“This is going to be the oldest timber-framed structure west of the Mississippi, and we thought it was a really unique opportunity,” said 1684 Venue owner Colby King.

The beams inside the building were once the bones of an old barn in Germany. Originally built to store hay in the late 1600s in Koerbin, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, the barn had been neglected in recent years and was falling down when the owners decided to sell what was left.

“It was one of the oldest barns I’d ever seen for sale, 1684, ya know, a 334-plus-year-old barn,” King said.

King instantly knew the barn’s wooden beams were destined to make a home in Oklahoma. The barn was carefully disassembled and shipped near Vian, where King and his wife, Phallyn, are building the 1684 Venue for weddings and events.

“It took a long time to be able to find the perfect spot for such a beautiful structure to land on, and when we found this property, we just fell in love with it,” said Phallyn.

The natural beauty outside ties in with the natural beams inside. The Kings are keeping the wood exposed and recreating the frame of the original barn.

“We have original pictures, and it did look like this—from the pitch of the roof being very steep due to snow in Europe. The only thing we’re changing is there won’t be any center beams just because of the flow of the room and things like that,” King said.

Piecing it all together perfectly is not a job for just anyone, so the Kings turned to a group of journeymen from Germany to take on the task. Journeymen are skilled workers in a specific trade or craft, known for their unparalleled expertise and dedication to their work. It’s a way of life that’s been around longer than the wood they’re working with.

“This tradition is about 850 years old. It’s the oldest written-down tradition in Europe,” said journeyman Hansen.

Hansen and his crew are carpenters.

“Being a journeyman is not a trade itself. Being a journeyman is part of your life where you go out, travel, and get to know different things, but you still stay within your trade,” Hansen said.

The job comes with strict rules: they must be under 30, have no wife or children, and never be in trouble with the law. They have a dress code, can’t have cellphones, can’t stay in one place longer than three months, and aren’t allowed to go within 30 miles of their hometown for at least three years.

“You kind of exchange it for the whole world, the rest of the world, so it’s a good trade,” Hansen said with a grin.

Hansen's work has taken him to countless countries, but this project—putting together a piece of history from his home country—means more than the rest.

“It’s hard to describe the feeling because there are so many things that go on in your mind when you think of a building that old. And especially when you learn carpentry, you don’t often have the opportunity to work on buildings that old,” Hansen said. “For me, it was an honor to build that building and to give it a new place to stay and stand.”

They didn’t have any blueprints of the original barn, which meant it took time to figure out where everything needed to go.

“A lot is about how the wood looks and how the whole building works with each other and how the beams fit to each other because there’s a part of art in it, I think,” Hansen said.

Some pieces were missing, and others were in bad shape, but the journeymen managed to make it work.

“This whole beam was not long enough, so we added that part there,” Hansen said, pointing out a newer piece of wood connected to a historic beam.

“You can hardly even tell,” reporter Tess Maune said.

“That’s the art of it,” Hansen responded.

Their work of art can be seen in every part of the finished venue. The old chunks of wood have transformed into a beautiful new space.

“It was original German craftsmen who built this barn, and it’s German craftsmen that [have given] it a new life here in America,” King said.

A new life where its storied past will be present for generations to come.

To learn more, visit 1684VenueResort.com and check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.