Venersborg was founded by Swedish immigrants who read about land available in this small unsettled area when they saw handbills posted in Boston, New York and Baltimore. Because the flyers were written in Swedish, only Swedish people knew about this area so it immediately became a Swedish settlement. A few dozen families started farms here and worked hard to retain their culture. This was not hard to do because the area was quite remote and is located on a dead-end road that butts up to the Cascade Mountains in southwest Washington. The land was settled by Ander Martensson Moberg (1861-1941) and his wife Anna Hakansdotter Moberg 1864-1954). The Moberg family owned the farm, passing it on to their son, Carl Moberg (1907-1989) and Esther Katrinna Forsgren Moberg (1907-2000), until 2002 when it was purchased by the current owners, Joseph and Jacqueline Freeman.

This Dutch Gambrel-style barn was built by 15 neighbors at a barn raising in 1918. The family had the materials ready for the neighbors who framed the barn in the traditional Swedish style. They worked together for 3 days with the posts and beams. The roof is gambrel shape with metal covering, and wood vertical batten siding.

A huge forest fire, the Yacolt Burn, had taken place prior and the field was full of downed cedars. The family hand split the shakes over the next few weeks on their own and shingled it. The original shakes are still on much of the outside and under the metal roof. It took 3 or 4 men many weeks to split the rest of the shakes and hammer them on. The barn was built into a hillside. They hand split cedar logs and charred them with fire so they wouldn't rot. Then they dug deep holes into the ground and put a flat rock at the bottom to spread the load out. These were the foundation posts of the bottom of the barn. Later, they added concrete on the lowest level. The hand hewn timbers are visible throughout the barn and many of the original shingles are still on the barn under the metal roof.

The main floor of the barn was built for dancing. They laid it with clear fir (no knots), tongue-and-groove 1 x 6 planks that were smooth-as a ballroom dance floor. The floor joists were close and overlapped so the floor had no "give" with the weight of hay or dancing. One mistake they made was that they didn't put in a big main timber and they always wished they had.

The upper floor had a unique hay loading trolley system, part of which is still in place. It was way ahead of its time. A four wheeled trolley ran along the center to a point on the north peak where it hit a pin, then another cable pulley dropped down. The hay-filled 1 x 12 sled was tied with 2 x 4s to a special 3 rope sling that tied together with a device on the end (like the drawstring of a purse). The sled was loaded with hay from the field, then the front end was wrapped together with 3 tails and hooked to the pulley at the north peak of the barn. A mule pulled the cable that pulled a block and tackle up to the peak where it hit a brake. That put it in position to enter the upper doors of the barn and it swung inside. By yanking on a trip, the hay load dropped onto the floor. The hole down to the bottom floor is on the south side and hay could be set into further position by the mule slowly walking as he pulled the cable. As the men hayed the field and loaded it in the barn, the women served lemonade. They found that men working in the heat had a tendency to drink too much water, but when they drank lemonade, it quenched their thirst much better.

The milk cows went below, entering from the south underneath directly from their pasture. There are stanchions on the east side and a trough (still there), pens for the calves on the west side. The milkers crossed the trough twice a day for milking. The milk was taken to the well and dropped down in to keep it cool. A truck came to pick up the milk and it was then pulled up by a pulley system and loaded onto the truck and taken to the co-op in Battle Ground, the nearest large town.

Each batch of milk was sampled and tested and the farm was paid a higher price for having a low bacteria count and a high butterfat content. The herd was mostly Holsteins for volume and Guernseys or Jerseys for butterfat.

On the east wall of the barn is a cabinet (still there) with handwritten records of each cow’s births and milking volumes. Inside the cabinet on the other side was bag balm, a short rope for leading, and a nose pincher for recalcitrant cows. In the 1940s, they added a steel syringe for penicillin to combat hoof rot or any other disease. They had a mouse proof bin with a galvanized scoop for grain and a scale that measured how much each cow got.

In the stanchion, each cow had her own box for grain and hay, separated so no grain got lost. A nose-run valve allowed each cow to have fresh well water when she wanted. Hay dropped down below to the cow area from the trap door on the main floor. Each cow also had a small red salt block (Morton mineral salt) at her stand. When closed up, the barn kept a constant 60-70 degree temperature, even in the coldest winters.

On the west side was a covered area that held manure all winter so the rain didn't wash away the nutrients. The manure was composted all fall and winter and spread in the spring on the pastures and hay fields. The barn is currently filled with hay.

In addition to the barn, there is a farmhouse constructed in 1926, and a machine shed also built in the 1920s.

• Listed in the Washington Heritage Barn Register