#23 Lucas, Wilson Lake & Abilene, Ks 8-28 thru 31-2008

We decided that we would camp somewhere for the holiday and not be on the road. We ended up at Wilson Lake at a Corp of Engineers campground. Because I made our reservations so late, all that was available was dry camping. But what a nice dry camp it was. We had our own designated campsite complete with picnic table, fire ring and lantern holder. It was all gravel and we could see the lake from our front window. All the sites had lots of open space between them, so running our generator was not a problem. We had very nice weather and spent quite a few hours just sitting in the sun being lazy.

The first afternoon we were at Wilson Lake we took a drive to the town of Lucas. This is a one main street town, very small with lots of "art" work. We went to visit "The Garden of Eden" a cabin built just for tourists by Mr. Dinsmore. He started this cabin and artwork when he was in his 60's and worked on it until he died in his late 80's. The style of artwork is called grassroots. Everything is made using concrete. He even built his own coffin with a glass lid which is on display in the mausoleum he built in back of the cabin. All of the artwork is either political or biblicial. The house is all made of Kansas Limestone, and some of the "blocks" are 20 feet long. It is amazing and kinda weird.Mr. Dinsmore was a survivor of the Civil War and his home and it's artwork are registered as a historic place. After we left Wilson Lake we headed to Abilene. As you can see, you cannot take the train any longer. The train station is closed, but remains as a reminder of travel after the Civil War and in the early part of the 1900's. The train station is also an historic place. Hopefully you can make out some of the history of old Abilene.
Both of us were surprised to see a two story log house. The upstairs was only accessible by a set of stairs on the outside, which are no longer there. There wasn't any heat upstairs, and it was only used for sleeping.

The inside of the bottom story of the cabin. Pretty primitive, but livable for the pioneers of Abilene.

The old town of Abilene is falling down. There is some talk of restoring it as a tourist attraction, but as you can see, it needs a lot of work.

We liked looking through the old buildings and imagining the town as a rip roaring cow town during the cattle drives.