Lone Star Lake--Lawrence Kansas.

There is a lake called Lone Star, it’s about six miles south of Lawrence, Kansas in Douglas county, it covers 195 acres. My wife and my first child would go there for the day to swim and fish and some times a week end of camping. The lake was a favorite gathering place for the college kids from Lawrence University. I don’t know when it was built but by mother and father would go there in the 1940’s. There was a swimming beach on the south side of the lake at the east end as you came into the lake on the dam side. The beach had a floating dock so you could walk farther out into the lake, I always stayed within the rope off area “No I can’t swim.” and after what I found out later I won’t have gone in, in the first place.

One day in the 1980’s we were sitting around home in Topeka, and heard they were going to empty the lake as the dam needed to be repaired. Well it took a couple months before we get there, when we came upon the dam what a sad site it was. The lake was empty and the bed was all dried up, and the bottom had big cracks from the mud drying up. Well we got out too look around then I noticed something at the bottom of the lake, it looked like a bridge but I thought what was a bridge be doing in the bottom of the lake. Well come to find out when they built the lake the had been a road the crossed a small creek, they decided to leave it. Many of the Kansas lakes and reservoirs still have bridges in them.

But this bridge is different in that it’s made of logs and is well over a hundred years old, you could even could see were the old road was. When we were at the bottom I looked around and I couldn’t believe how deep we were, it was at lest 80 to 90 feet to the top bank. The lake is full again? And I believe the bridge is still there. No one will ever see the bridge, but I had my camera that day and took some pictures and well share them with you now.

Note. If you have any history about the lake, I would like to know about it, you can write to me at the following: dsegelquist1@cox.net

Note. By pushing on the pictures you will get a full screen view.