This old barn with Mail Pouch Tabacco advertising painted on the side is somewhere near Otter Lake. West Virginia Mail Pouch chewing tobacco company started barn advertising in 1891. Barn owners were paid between $1 and $2 a year for the advertisement or about $20–40 today. Besides money, they received a new coat of paint over the entire barn. Mail Pouch painted their message on one or two sides of the barn and painted the other sides of the barn any color the owner wished. Many of the barns were repainted every few years to maintain the sharp colors of the lettering. By the early 1960s, about 20,000 Mail Pouch barns were spread across 22 states. There are only a few Mail Pouch barns still standing in Michigan. There is a severely faded one in Saginaw County near SVSU and one near Hillsdale.
Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.
