A pretty neat barnstorming tour is rolling through the area this weekend.

From stone to silos, traditional to the torn down, barns are branded into our area's landscape.

"If hadn't developed an instrument of storage called a barn we would never have progressed from a nomadic species going place to place to more or less a settled area," said Greg Huber, a barn historian.

More than a dozen barns will be highlighted in the 6th annual Saucon Valley Barn Tour this Saturday.

Barn historian Bob Ensminger said a 1907 bank barn just outside Hellertown, Northampton Co., is a small but traditional example of a Pennsylvania barn, although owner Bob Shultz has imprinted his own modern touch.

"To me, this is just a place to put things in, but I had no idea there were folks interested in old barns," Shultz said.

Huber is one who is interested in preserving old barns. He's leading a charge to restore a crumbled shell at the Heller Homestead in Hellertown.

He and the Saucon Valley Conservancy are trying to raise more than a million dollars to do so.

"More than paintings, more than ceramics, more than anything else, it's the architecture that told how people lives their lives," Huber said.

Huber said there are about 100 barns in each of Lehigh Valley municipalities. This weekend, he and the conservancy are only hoping people pay $25 a visit to about 12, which would in turn give a boost to one battered barn.