If these walls could talk: Pine County woman finds billboard ads from 40s during barn renovation

PINE COUNTY, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Acme Junk Company in Amery, Wisconsin is filled with timeless treasures. Every antique or vintage item has a story, but few are as unusual as the origins of the most recent arrivals.

"It's amazing because it truly is something that shouldn't exist," said owner Craig Olson.

Olson says he got a call from a woman back in September who was doing a renovation project on a barn in Pine County 10 years ago when she found a number of billboard advertisements from the 40s and 50s in the walls. 

Olson says the woman learned from the barn's previous owners that the building used to house a printing shop, and she believes the printers used some of their extra product as insulation.

"These are things the Smithsonian should have because the only reason they exist is because they were useful in a different manner and in this case insulation on the inside of a barn," said Olson.
In all, Olson says he helped the barn owner pull 8 to 10, 10 by 20-foot billboard posters from the walls of the barn, each panel a piece of a larger puzzle.

Olson says there are ads for everything from Chevrolet and Pontiac to The March Of Dimes, and while some have damage from water or mice, most are in incredible condition considering where they've been for the last 70 years.

"They were designed to be pasted on billboards, sit there for 6 months until the next ad campaign, then get taken down or pasted over, and they just shouldn't be here," said Olson.

Olson hopes to find buyers for the pieces of Americana who have enough room to display them in their entirety and savor these signs of their time.

"Who gets to look at billboards that were being pulled out of the walls of a barn that haven't been seen in 70 years? That's exciting stuff to me," said Olson.