PAWNEE CITY — Larry the Cable Guy couldn’t make it Thursday when the Pawnee City Historical Society moved his family’s barn to a new home.

But the comedian’s famous phrase was evident as Ensor Movers Inc. of Johnson ushered the faded red barn up a hill and down a milelong road to the society’s museum grounds on the east edge of Pawnee City.

In fact, hand-painted “Git-R-Done” signs adorned the front and back of the barn, hung there by society President Roy Mullin of rural DuBois.

A Nebraska Public Power District crew moved power lines to make way for the barn, which took up most of the road. Time Warner Cable guys helped out, too.

Ensor employees trimmed brush and tree limbs with a chainsaw to make room for the 25-ton barn with an attached lean-to shed.

“Only in Pawnee City would you see something like that,” said John DeFreece, area manager for NPPD, as he watched the barn lumber down the street.

As the barn inched closer to the museum grounds, the crowd grew larger. People snapped digital photos, watched out for a stray dog that kept wandering into traffic and talked about Larry the Cable Guy, whose real name is Dan Whitney, and his family.

“Dan can remember when his dad reroofed it,” said Mullin, who used to mow the grass around the barn when he was a teenager.

“Deb (Dan’s sister) was a good friend of mine,” Mullin said. “Danny was six years younger. He was just a punk kid running around.”

That punk kid grew up to be a famous stand-up comic, recording artist, movie star and multi-millionaire. Born in Pawnee City in 1963, he lived in a house near the barn at 14th and I streets. His family moved to Florida in the 1970s when Whitney was about 13.

On Thursday, traffic had to be stopped as the Ensor crew drove the barn slowly across the highway.

“That is something isn’t it — how they can maneuver something like that around. Amazing,” said Willard Sommerhalder, a museum volunteer from Steinauer.

He and other volunteers will help restore the barn as a living history museum, where children can watch horses and dairy cows eat from mangers and inspect antique farm machinery.

“We’re definitely going to need donations for the roof. We need new shingles on it,” said Yvonne Dalluge, supervisor and treasurer of the historical society.

The exact age of the barn is not known. Mullin believes that since there are no square nails in the wood, it was built sometime after 1890. Although structurally sound, the barn needs the new shingles, lots of siding boards and paint.

Dalluge and other museum members have been working on the barn-moving project for almost two years. They were aware of the barn (the house is no longer there) and its connection to Larry the Cable Guy.

“We knew he was a very famous and popular comedian now,” Dalluge said. “And we thought, we should be saving a barn at the museum site. We have everything else, but not a barn.”

Emmett Gyhra, who farms the land, donated the barn to the historical society. Dalluge said they had planned to move it last summer but Darrell Ensor, the owner of Ensor Movers, died in a plane crash while flying his new plane to Falls City on July 4 for an inspection.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen to the project,” Dalluge said.

Ensor’s employees decided to fulfill his promise to move the barn.

“We try to help out the historical society and help out when we can,” said Ryan Baltensperger, a co-owner of Ensor and self-described surrogate son. “We’re finishing up the job.”

Dalluge said Ensor charged for fuel and labor only, and volunteers already had put in a lot of work. Mullin, for instance, hauled in 28 loads of dirt to level off the land where the barn will sit. Other people have offered to donate siding.

“It will be a project,” Mullin said. “It’s been a project so far.”

Historical society members hope to have the barn restored and painted red with white trim by the end of September, when they will celebrate the group’s 40th anniversary.

“I know Larry the Cable Guy would have enjoyed this,” Dalluge said. “He would have been entertained if he’d had come.”

Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at (402) 473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.