Learn about us!

The Barn is owned by Cher and Allan Maybee. Both have ridden the Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail on horseback. Allan has the Mormon, William Ashley, and Lewis and Clark Trail to add to his list of adventures.  Cher and Allan are writers and lecturers of trail history and adventure and are always willing to share their unique stories.  Allan has served as a guide for the Oregon Trail, with the aid of Paul Henderson’s historic Oregon Trail maps.  The Barn invites you to become a fellow traveler through time and history and escape to the legends of the West. Learn more about us from this introduction for Allan from a state conference in Wyoming where he was a featured speaker!

About Allan

Prior to moving back to Scottsbluff and purchasing Barn Anew, Allan was a teacher in the Riverton, Wyoming public schools. He was named the 1990 Wyoming Social Studies Teacher of the Year. He has been a member of the Central Wyoming College Board of Trustees. Allan has well established his ability to speak publicly through spots on national television and radio.

World Portage Record

Testing himself, Allan broke a world portage record, which he still holds today. He carried a canoe 65 miles overland and canoed another 27 miles, all in less than 18 hours. He created the Midwest Canoe Association (M.C.A.) which grew into a membership of many hundreds within a few years. In 1970, he founded the University of Nebraska Olympic Rowing team, which moved from an athletic oddity in the Midwest to the number five team in the nation in four years. The university team has continued to this day, achieving unparalleled success. Allan earned his Bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and two Master’s degrees from the University of Nebraska. He is an accomplished artist and writer and has a wide range of hobbies. He possesses a genuine love and concern for his fellow man, the environment, and his country.

Following the Oregon Trail

In 1975 he organized and served as the head trail scout for the 2,200-mile long crossing of the Oregon Trail on horseback. In 1978, he was commissioned as a colonel in the famous 7th Calvary. He then led five frontiersmen and three enlisted men of the 7th Calvary 1,100 miles across the entire length of the legendary Santa Fe Trail. This adventure appeared in the National Geographic book Trails West. In the summer of 1981, he rode a 10-speed bike 1,100 miles in 13 days, across the Santa Fe Trail to re-enact a poem written in 1870. In the summer of 1985, Allan organized and served as the head scout for the 500-mile crossing of the Oregon-California Trail from Ft. Laramie to Ft. Bridger. This adventure appeared in National Geographic Magazine.

Route of General William Ashley

In 1987 he organized a three-year enterprise to follow the entire 1835 route of General William Ashley from Utah to St. Louis. The first year Allan and his crew spent one year trapping beaver in order to gather 100 pounds of hides. The second year he loaded the 100 pound pack of hides onto horses at Henry’s Fork of the Green River near the Utah/Wyoming border, and along with 13 mountain men and women and 23 powerful horses rode 350 miles overland in 13 days to the Wind River, near Riverton, Wyoming.

The third year he loaded the 100 pounds of beaver skins into a 27 foot voyager canoe, named the “Centennial Messenger.” Then along with a determined crew of three men and two women took the valuable cargo 2,600 miles down the Big Wind, Big Horn, Yellowstone, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis in 72 days.

Lewis and Clark Bicentennial

During the summer of 2001, he organized and led a Lewis and Clark Bicentennial project, which resulted in setting several world records. On June 9th, Allan and Roger Melton launched their Polaris Genesis jet skis in the Gulf of Mexico. The pair traveled across the Gulf of Mexico, then up the Mississippi River 1000 miles, 3000 miles up the Missouri River to its source at Three Forks, Montana.  Then the travelled down the Snake and Columbia Rivers to Astoria.

They reached the Pacific Ocean on July 22, at 3:00 p.m. after traveling over 5600 miles in 43 days. They hold the world record for the longest distance traveled on a jet ski. The two were also the first to cross the United States in two directions on a jet ski. They were the first to go from east to west across the U.S. and from south to north across the U.S. Then they were interviewed by Matt Lauer on the Morning Show in New York as a result of this enterprise.

Blown by the Wind

Allan began a journey on his mountain bike at the geographical center of the United States in 2005, which is located near Lebanon, Kansas. The project titled “Blown by the Wind” had no destination nor mileage limitations. For ten days he simply rode his bike whichever way the wind blew him. He was well on his way into South Dakota and heading for North Dakota at a good clip when a sudden cold front out of the north turned him around and blew him back towards Kansas, where he ended his adventure.