LAWRENCE & DOUGLAS CO [ IN PERSPECTIVE ]
Making Lakes by Patricia A. Michaelis, Ph.D., Historical Research & Archival Consulting photos by Steven Hertzog
THE HISTORY OF THIS NEARBY LAKE IS UNIQUE AND PRESERVED BECAUSE OF NEWSPAPERS CREATED BY A CIVILIAN CORPS OF BLACK WORKERS. Located approximately 10 miles southwest of the City of Lawrence, Lone Star Lake and its surrounding park provides campsites, restrooms with showers, a playground with a volleyball net, a swimming beach, fishing, boating and water skiing, and shelters for picnics and group gatherings. A community building can be rented for family and group events.
Interestingly, Lone Star Lake was built by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Co. 767, and the members of Co. 767 were African American. Co. 767 was one of only five “colored” companies in Kansas. The CCC was an important part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s, which provided voluntary public work relief during the Great Depression and operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18 through 25, eventually expanding to ages 17 through 28. Kansas was requested to recruit 1,106 enrollees by working with the state board of social welfare and county welfare offices. Potential enrollees had to be vetted on financial need and character. The CCC evolved from an emergency public-relief program to “a permanent governmental provision to teach capable young men trades which they can use later in private employment, and at
Lone Star Lake
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