Among the many projects currently underway at the Colburn House State Historic Site is the restoration of the barn. Built in the 1800s, the barn has sunken into the soft ground and its sill beams have rotted away.

The State's Bureau of General Services is preparing a design for repair of the structure but the $50,000 that it will cost to raise the barn two feet, repair its "feet" and lower it back one foot to its original height is not allocated in any budget.

The barn holds the Arnold Expedition Historical Society "Boat Museum" that includes an original Native American birchbark canoe from the late 1700s and a Kennebec River bateau from 1806 or earlier.

Five of the bateaux built for and used in the 1975 reenactment of Arnold's March to Quebec are also on display here.

The Colburn Barn was built around 1820 using some of the beams from the original 1765 barn on the same site. It was last repaired in 1979 but the beams were laid on the ground at that time and not on stone or concrete footing. As a result, the barn has slowly sunk more than a foot into the ground.

Fortunately, the barn is otherwise structurally sound and with a new set of feet beneath it, it should last for many decades after it is repaired.