I know there've been some threads about this in the past few months, did you try searching the old messages? The best place/price I've found is local to me: Western Container in Mpls' warehouse district.

yes... I searched many of the old threads. However, I did manage to locate a number of excellent barrels by using the Minnesota Material Exchange web site. There are a number of business that list drums (as well as other materials such as pallets) that they want to get rid of. I would highly recommend anyone looking to find cheap or throwaway materials for a project to check there.

I had to make a road trip out of it, as the barrels were in Central MN... but it was worth the drive! I got 9 barrels that are white, somewhat translucent, with markings on the side for how many gallons are in each. They used to hold vanilla, so no cleaning will be needed. I paid $5/each for them.

For anyone interested, I found the following link which has inspired me on this project. (http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/adams/audrey/water_barrel.htm)

Thanks for the help!

Here is a link that might be useful: elevated rain barrel idea

used wine barrels work great too. I know there are a couple garden centers taht stock them in Minneapolis, as does By The Barrel (www.bythebarrelmn.com). They are probably a little more than 5 bucks a pop though!

There's a Twin Cities place listed here: http://www.tylertork.com/diyrainbarrels/construction.html. Not positive it's current info, tho.