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WL PROFILES
Scott Barr
Farmer, rancher, legislator and philanthropist
By Kevin Gaffney
As the current crop of elected officials wrestle with the
budget deficit problems of Washington state, Scott Barr,
former house and senate member, is satisfied to be retired
from politics. At age 95, Barr still manages his farm and
ranch interests from his home in the Colville valley.
Still active and well-spoken, Barr agreed to sit down and
talk about his life and his career in farming, ranching and
politics.
Barr was born in 1916 and was raised on the breaks
of the Snake River in southern Whitman County near
Hooper, Wash.
His years growing up were not easy ones, as he vividly
remembers tough times during the Great Depression.
The oldest son, Barr attended country schools, but only
sporadically after the age of twelve as he was needed at
home on the farm, living on the land previously lost to
foreclosure.
“The sons in most farm families didn’t go to school
regularly once they were old enough to work,” noted Barr.
“Commodity prices were depressed, and no one had very
much money.”
When Barr was 13, the family scraped up all the money
they could spare and went to Spokane to buy some cattle.
They purchased six head of yearlings for 4.5 cents per
pound. One of them died soon afterward, but that small
initial investment eventually grew into a herd of more
than 800 head over 80 plus years.
By the time Barr was 19, he was the ranch foreman and
was three years older than all the hired hands on their
farm at harvest. Scott and his brother Clay agreed to stay
on the farm and not seek any higher education in return
for the promise from his father and stepmother that they
would be full partners.
The agreement also included the stipulation that if one
of the sons decided to get married, the parents would
move off the farm to allow the new family to live there.
By the time he turned 26, Scott had found the woman
of his dreams, the local schoolmarm, Evelyn Heimbigner.
They were married in 1943. For five years, things
went well, with the farm expanding and the economy
improving.
They bought a neighboring farm for $18.50 per acre, and
another for $22 per acre. The Barr brothers were building
an efficient operation.
Scott Barr and his wife Dollie.
Suddenly, Scott’s parents decided they hated living in
Colfax and wanted to move back to the farm. Following
some uncomfortable negotiations, Scott and Clay decided
to pack it up and find a farm elsewhere.
They found a nice, 2,200-acre farm near Edwall. Several
of the locals had wanted to buy the land, but felt the asking
price of $165 per acre was too high. There was plenty
of skepticism among neighbors that wasn’t very well hidden,
said Barr.
“Several neighboring farmers openly stated that no one
could pay that much per acre and survive. ‘Those Snake
River kids won’t be here in three years, they’ll go broke,’
they said. That was 63 years ago. I guess we lasted a bit
longer than they expected,” Barr said with a smile.
For many years, Barr and his brother put themselves
to the task with a vengeance. Eventually, Clay decided to
go into real estate speculation as a career. Scott was more
comfortable with farming and ranching, so they split the
partnership and went their separate ways.
When Barr finally felt that the farm had reached a stable
financial footing, he decided to devote 50 percent of his
time to various volunteer pursuits.
34 WHEAT LIFE JANUARY 2012