John Gussman
North Olympic Land Trust has purchased the 135‑acre Big Red Barn Farm, the largest remaining portion of the Dick-Hunt Farm (traditionally referred to as the “Dick Farm”), ensuring a path to keep one of the region’s oldest working farms in agricultural production.
In early 2025, the Hunt (née Dick) family approached the Land Trust seeking a full‑market‑value sale prevent the 112‑year‑old farm from being converted into a 27‑lot residential development. With a deadline to sell by the end of 2025, the Land Trust assembled a financing package combining a Washington State loan, seller financing, and previous community contributions. The purchase closed on December 30.
“This is a rare opportunity to protect a farm of this scale and history. I’m delighted the Land Trust can honor the current and previous farmers who established this productive farm while giving our community a chance to ensure this farm continues to serve the region for generations to come,” said Land Trust Board President Julie Knobel.
The Land Trust is now pursuing agricultural conservation easements that would permanently protect the property as farmland. If successful, the farm’s long-term operator—who has worked the land for four decades—will continue farming. Upon his retirement, the Land Trust plans to resell the property, potentially as up to three smaller farms, at an agricultural value to farmers based on viable farm plans rather than to the highest bidder.
Buy, Protect, Sell
The Land Trust purchased the property for $6.25 million using three‑year seller financing, a Washington State Farm PAI loan, and previous community fundraising. The next step is to permanently protect the farm through agricultural conservation easements—legal agreements that restrict the land to agricultural use. These protections significantly reduce the property’s market value, making the land more affordable for future farmers.
Proceeds from the sale of the conservation easements will be used to make the scheduled payments to the previous owner. Clallam County is currently considering a request through its Conservation Futures Program to support the Big Red Barn Farm’s permanent protection.
The farm has been operated by the same farmer since the 1980s growing a combination of row crops, brassica seed, hay, and barley. The farmer also uses the land for cattle. The Land Trust is committed to ensure him continued access. Around the time of his retirement, the protected property is expected to be resold—potentially as up to three smaller farms—at its reduced agricultural value. The Land Trust will select future farmers based on the strength of their farm plans, not their ability to outbid one another.
“Protecting this land isn’t just about preserving acreage—it’s about giving farmers the long‑term land access they need to succeed. By keeping this farm available and affordable for agricultural use, we’re investing in the next generation of farmers and strengthening the future of local agriculture,” said Land Trust Executive Director Tom Sanford.
The Land Trust anticipates approximately $750,000 in project costs that will not be covered by grants or the future sale of the property. Community fundraising to close this gap is underway, with more than $317,000 already committed.
“While Buy, Protect, Sell requires some risk, it’s one of the most powerful tools we have. It allows the Land Trust to act quickly when critical properties come up for sale and create outcomes where the land, the farmers, and the community all benefit,” said Sanford. “Our Board worked carefully to ensure we could respond swiftly to this opportunity without compromising the long‑standing commitments that define the Land Trust’s work.”
About the Farm
Prior to European immigrants’ arrival, the land we know today as the Big Red Barn Farm was part of a productive prairie that served as an important food source and likely hunting grounds for local tribes, particularly the S’Klallam people. Today, the Tribe, the Land Trust and other local conservation groups continue to restore and create prairies elsewhere in the area where they are most likely to flourish, in acknowledgment of this critical habitat and cultural heritage.
In 1886, James B. Dick immigrated to the Olympic Peninsula from Scotland and established a small farm, known as the Smalley Farm, in Dungeness. In 1904, his son William Dick purchased 280 acres of farmland at what is now the corner of Kitchen‑Dick Road and Old Olympic Highway. Shortly after purchasing the farm, William began constructing a massive barn, clearing stumps in the southern portion of the property, establishing a family homestead.
“The Dick Farm was one of the original homesteads with the largest barn hilt at its time,” said Judy Reandeau Stipe, Sequim Museum Executive Director. “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.”
courtesy of the Port Angeles History Center
“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,” continued Stipe. “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.”
courtesy of the Port Angeles History Center
The work of developing a farm required many hands, and the Dick family relied on Chinese immigrants not only for heavy manual labor but also for food and crop cultivation. One immigrant, known in the records as Mr. Hang (also written as “Hung,” “Ba Hang,” or “Ba Hung”), lived on the farm in a small home on the back of the property, near the home of William’s daughter, Jean Dick Cook. Mr. Hang lived and worked with the family until about age 89, when he returned to China to rejoin his wife—a remarkable and unusually well‑documented story within the Chinese diaspora of this area. Before he left, he gave Jean a professional studio photograph of himself, offering an earnest smile, so that she would always remember him.
courtesy of Sequim Museum and Arts
Through marriage and inheritance, the family name on the farm changed from Dick to Hunt, but the people and their connection to the land continued unbroken until 2025, when the remaining 135 acres were sold by the Hunt family to North Olympic Land Trust to begin the process of permanent farmland conservation.
About the Land Trust
North Olympic Land Trust is a community-based nonprofit whose mission is to conserve the land and natural resources that continue to be the foundation of our ecology, economy, and way of life. Founded in 1990, the Land Trust works with private landowners to permanently protect over 100 properties for farms, fish, and forests. In 2010, the Land Trust merged with Friends of the Fields, and collectively these organizations have forever preserved 26 of Clallam County’s working farms.