Big Red Barn Farm

135 acres of irreplaceable farmland, to be Protected forever with your help.

Photo by John Gussman

A Farm Worth Saving

When the Hunt (nee Dick) family, owners of the Big Red Barn Farm approached North Olympic Land Trust with their desire to conserve their 135-acre property, we knew immediate action would be necessary to save this historic and irreplaceable farm in Sequim-Dungeness. Thanks to prior fundraising and generous loans, the Land Trust was able to purchase the Big Red Barn Farm in late December 2025. While the property has successfully been acquired, it is only the first step to ensure its farming heritage.

The land itself has been a food source for thousands of years. Local tribes managed prairie on the land, as immigrants more recently established farms.

The future of the farm and its legacy depend on what we do next. We must act now to raise the funds needed to place conservation easements on this land to protect it as farmland forever. Our innovative Buy, Protect, Sell conservation model, supports not just this farm. It creates a sustainable approach that funds future conservation projects.

By permanently protecting this property through conservation easements and supporting the current farmer with lease access during our years’ of ownership, the Land Trust seeks to ensure the Big Red Barn Farm continues to serve our community while remaining protected from development pressures for future generations.

Why it Matters

The Sequim-Dungeness Valley faces critical risk of farmland fragmentation. Since 1945, Clallam County has lost over 80% of its farmland to development. Protecting the Big Red Barn Farm prevents subdivision and preserves agricultural heritage.

Before – At Risk of Development

Without protection, this 135-acre farm remains subdivided for residential parcels,
threatening our local food system and agricultural heritage.

After – Protected Forever

Through conservation easements, the Big Red Barn Farm would remain farmland in perpetuity, supporting local agriculture and next-generation farmers.

The 5-Acre Problem

Over recent decades, increased development and land conversion have disrupted the balance between agriculture, habitat, and community needs. Farmland is among the most threatened landscapes in our region; since 1945 more than 80% has been converted to other uses.

Through prior county planning processes, much of our community’s prime farmland is now zoned as “agricultural retention.” While this zoning code sets a minimum lot size of 16 acres, some predominant larger farm parcels, such as the Big Red Barn Farm, with pre-existing 5-acre lots, are exempted. We call this issue the “5-acre problem.” They are invaluable farmland, but they are also very desirable locations for single family housing developments, 1 house and 1 accessory dwelling per 5 acres.

While education and zoning code provide some protection by encouraging thoughtful development, these measures alone are not enough to prevent the continued loss of working lands and habitat. That is why private, voluntary land conservation through the Land Trust is necessary to allow landowners and the community directly shape balanced land use and safeguard these vital landscapes for the future.

We recognize our community faces an affordable housing crisis as well as the rapid loss of our unique and historic farmlands. We seek to strike a balance between preserving Clallam County’s last large pieces of farmland while also encouraging increased population density in areas with existing development.

“This work is in line with our strategic plan, based on community need and timeliness. By actively implementing our farmland conservation strategy, we’re ensuring that the lands defining our community remain protected for future generations.”

Karen Westwood – Board Member, North Olympic Land Trust

The soil at the Big Red Barn Farm is classified as USDA Prime Soil, the highest designation the federal government awards to agricultural land. It has the ideal combination of texture, drainage, depth, and growing season to produce food with minimal inputs. Mapped as Dick (named after the Dick family farmland) loamy sand at 0–15% slopes named after, it is classified as prime farmland when irrigated. The official USDA type location for this series sits right here in the Dungeness Valley.

Photo courtesy of the Port Angeles History Center

Photo by John Gussman

Washington State’s Agricultural Land Classification designates this land as the state’s Best Agricultural Land, a rare distinction that underscores its exceptional fertility and its irreplaceable value to our regional food system.

Once prime farmland is paved over or subdivided, it is almost impossible to restore. Protecting the Big Red Barn Farm means safeguarding this soil and the food it can produce for every generation who comes after us.

The Future Phase

Protecting this land is only the beginning. Through North Olympic Land Trust’s innovative Buy, Protect, Sell conservation model, the future of the Big Red Barn Farm is one of active, thriving of dynamic, versatile and flourishing agriculture.

Once conservation easements are secured, the Land Trust will sell the land to qualified working farmers at prices made more financially accessible by the easement’s restrictions. This approach transforms conservation fundraising into a self-sustaining cycle: the proceeds from the sale are used to help fund the Land Trust’s next conservation project, ensuring our work continues long after this campaign ends.

In the meantime, the current farmer continues to work the land under a lease agreement. This ensures the Big Red Barn Farm remains an active, productive part of the Sequim-Dungeness agricultural community throughout our stewardship period.

The result is a working farm on some of Washington State’s most fertile and irreplaceable soil that will be farmed by the current generation and every generation that follows.

The History of the Big Red Barn Farm

Photo Courtesy of the Port Angeles History Center

Indigenous Roots of the Land

The Big Red Barn Farm stands on former prairie in the Dungeness Valley, land historically tended by the S’Klallam people. They managed this land since at least the last glaciation, using fire to maintain open grasslands, which provided camas and other foods native to the Olympic Peninsula. Their long stewardship created the fertile, well‑drained setting that later attracted settlers and made the area one of Washington’s most productive farming districts.

The Dick Family Farm

James and Margaret Dick were among the first Scottish settlers in Dungeness, farming earlier homesteads including the Smalley farm. In 1904, their son William Dick and his wife Jessie Frew purchased the 280‑acre ‘home farm’ at what is now Kitchen‑Dick Road and Old Olympic Highway. In the beginning they lived in simple tent‑cabins while clearing fields and improving the property. When Clallam County built a north–south road across the farm in 1913, William and neighboring landowners donated the right‑of‑way, and the route was initially named Dick Lane in recognition of the family’s role.

Photo Courtesy of the Port Angeles History Center

Building of the large dairy barn begun in 1914 and completed in 1915. Measuring about 140 by 100 feet and roughly 65 feet high, it was designed to house around 130 cows along one side and horses along the other. The timber frame includes hand‑split fir rafters and three massive hand‑hewn posts running from the ground floor to the roof ridge, with William’s son John doing the adze work on the interior pillars. Later, facilities were added to process the mint grown on the property and a cooling tower for milk.

“The Dick Farm was one of the original homesteads with the largest barn hilt at its time. This iconic building anchored the Northeast corner of Dick Road and Old Olympic Highway. The dairy farm had a herd of over 100 cows for milk production, chickens and pigs and beef for family use.

Over the years, alfalfa and other grains were gown to feed the animals. In addition, peas for pea seed productions were grown and shipped commercially. Fresh peas were sold locally, field corn harvested for silage, corn corps for human consumption and later, peppermint was grown and distilled on the property for world markets. This farm is a crucial part of our community’s farming heritage. I am so pleased to support this effort to protect this farm forever.”

Judy Reandeau Stipe, Sequim Museum Executive Director

Photo Courtesy of the Port Angeles History Center

Separate local histories document that Chinese immigrants were an important part of Dungeness farming in this era. Local reporting on the barn’s history notes that Chinese workers helped build the barn, though surviving records do not name those workers. The Chinese farmers provided fresh produce for the community through their kitchen gardens and potatoes to the mills and logging camps (enhanced by their specific practice for storing potatoes). More personally for the farm, a long relationship existed between the Dick family and a Chinese worker known as Mr. Hang. William and Jessie’s daughter, Jean Dick Cook, later recalled that Hang worked for her father clearing land for a year’s potato crop and tending the family’s cows when they were away. After Jean married Frederick Cook, Mr. Hang continued to clear land for them and lived in a small house at the back of their property near this same crossroads; he sent his earnings home to China and eventually returned there in his 80s to join his wife and family. These stories firmly establish that Chinese labor and, including Mr. Hang’s long association with the Dick family, contributed directly to the development and day‑to‑day operation of this farm.

_{^{Mr. Hung. photo courtesy of the Sequim Museum and Arts}}

Life on the farm included both hardship and growth. In 1915 a chimney fire destroyed the family’s house, and during the severe winter of 1916 the Dicks lived in a converted chicken house while continuing to build their operation. In 1917 William bought an additional 57 acres across the road that included a gray house, and by 1922 a new main residence stood on the original home place, with the big barn as its working center.

Photo Courtesy of the Port Angeles History Center

A Legacy in the Soil

Over subsequent decades William Dick became known as a pioneer of high‑grade dairy farming in Clallam County, operating one of the area’s largest and most successful farms and shipping cream to local cooperatives. The light, sandy soils under his fields were later formally recognized by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service as the Dick soil series; mapped units such as Dick loamy sand, 0–15 percent slopes, are classified as prime farmland when irrigated. The official type location for this series lies in the Dungeness Valley, and the naming of the soil after the Dick family links the physical character of the land with the people who farmed it for more than a century.

Preserving Our Region’s History and Farming

The Big Red Barn Farm – Dick/Hunt Family Farm is a well-known and recognized farm, by those who live here and visitors to our county. It has a long history of providing food for those who lived here, even before immigrants from other lands arrived. By conserving this property, we are able to provide a place for family farmers to do what they love and sustain not only themselves but this community with their crops. rather than being developed.  It is a special place, in its soil, its diverse history and the ongoing legacy it serves as farmland. property which is disappearing all too quickly.

Campaign Progress

August, 18 2026

Help close the $323,267 gap that remains in this $7.28 million conservation opportunity.