To help celebrate the bicentennial year for Clay County, the Excelsior Springs Museum and Archives will be holding a “Cooley Lake Art Show” April 8th through the 16th. The event, originally scheduled for last spring, had to be postponed due to a resurgence in the COVID-19 virus. The art show will offer $600 in prizes for artists. Artworks can be new or old works, in the categories of photography, painting, or drawing (any medium). There will be youth and adult divisions for entries. For more information and to obtain an entry form, email your request to the Museum and Archives at emuseum101@gmail.com. The goal of the art show is to add to the historic record of Cooley Lake, an early landmark for the earliest American settlers in Clay County.
Even many longtime residents may not realize the significance of Cooley Lake in local history. The small oxbow lake south of Excelsior Springs was a well-known landmark in the earliest days of Clay County. One of the earliest European settlers in our area, Joseph Cooley, is paid homage in the lake’s name.
According to some early histories of our area, Cooley Lake was the site of the first wedding in Clay County. Parmer, who later became a colorful politician, presided over the marriage of Cornelius Gilliam and Mary Crawford “under a big sugar tree which stood on the bluff overlooking Cooley’s Lake.” Gilliam was also said to be the last person to kill a bear on the banks of Cooley’s Lake (even in 1825, bears were rarely seen in this area).
Cooley Lake was the site of the only recorded hostile act between settlers and native Americans in Clay County. Two of four blockhouses erected to protect settlers in Clay County were built near Cooley Lake after this skirmish. One was on Parmer’s land and the other on Judge Elisha Cameron’s land.
In 1822, the Clay County Court ordered the first county road to be built by “all able-bodied male persons over the age of 18” from Bluffton (the first Ray County seat, now called Camden) to the Clay County seat. Its path was to include the dividing ridge between Fishing River and the Missouri River, where Col. Martin Parmer lived just north of Cooley Lake. The road would be built through “dense and heavy woodland as ever existed in this or any county,” according to an early historian.
Gossip tidbits in the Liberty Tribune in the 1870s and 1880s talk about pleasure excursions for sporting parties stories seeking fish or fowl and for courting couples: “Fishing parties to the Cooley lake [are] the order of the day, some catch plenty [of] fish and some come away empty,” according to a May 7, 1878 item. In another dated Nov. 28, 1879, the author wrote lightheartedly, “Still they come from Kansas City and other points to Cooley’s Lake “ducking” and every time they return “loaded.”
On March 18, 1881, it was reported that “A company of ten Kansas City gentlemen purchased the shooting privilege at Cooley’s lake the present year.”
On June 3, 1881, the “Missouri City Items” columnist Sunty,” wrote, “Four or five wagon loads of young ladies and gents from the Carroll and Mt. Zion neighborhoods passed through our city last Saturday enroute to Cooley’s Lake, to spend a day of recreation and sport, full of enthusiasm and determination, to exterminate the finny tribe, and in the evening returned, soaking wet, and vowing never to be caught out, on such a day again.” In the same edition, another item announced that “A party consisting of Misses Reed, Robertson and two Misses Dale, accompanied by Messrs. Grubbs, Simmons, Gilmor, and Robertson, went fishing Wednesday and didn’t get wet.”
1881, a land transaction was reported: “Mr. John Chanslor last week purchased of the Henshaw Bros., the large tract of land adjacent to Cooley’s Lake, consisting of 540 acres, paying in round numbers $6,500. Chanslor bought more land in October: 80 acres from Judge Early for $1,200 and 120 acres from Melvin Field for the same price, all adjoining his tract near Cooley Lake.
His plans became clear on March 24, 1882, when the Liberty Weekly Tribune reported: “A company has been organized, and operations already commenced to make a pleasure resort of Cooley’s Lake, three miles below town; a levee will be thrown up a distance of several miles, in order to deepen it, a driveway constructed along the beach, a hotel built and many other improvements added.” It’s unclear what sort of hotel was built; accounts in later years indicate it was a hunting lodge.
In the meantime, pleasure excursions continued. In the May 12, 1882, Liberty Weekly Tribune, a columnist wrote that “A party of young ladies and gents took advantage of “Luna’s” brightness one evening last week and drove down to “Cooleys” Lake and passed away the evening pleasantly. We did not learn whether any of them had a “bite” or not.”
Sadly, in April 1883, a Liberty Weekly Tribune reported that “A. Blackwell, a druggist from Lee’s Summit, Mo., while on a hunting expedition at Cooley’s Lake with friends, was drowned Tuesday night last.”
In March, the Tribune reported that “A distinguished party fishing party went to Cooley’s Lake Tuesday. It consisted of Cooley a doctor, lawyer and two preachers” and “Dr. E.H. Miller and three others caught 85 lbs. of dressed fish in one day Spring at Cooley’s Lake, and did not fish continuously either. [Dr. Miller] regards the Cooley Lake as the finest fishing resort in the west. The best of board can be had on the grounds, boats, bait, ice, etc. The owner makes one mistake; he should charge a small fee for the privilege of fishing, to keep the property up and pay interest on the investment.”
In May 1884, it was reported that “Cooley’s Lake has become quite a favorite resort for devotees of Ike Walton -parties from K.C. and various other places come every day to drop the line. Fishing is fine, and Mr. Robertson knows how to entertain his guests in the royal manner, and last, but not least, there is Lyd, the cook, who can get up as fine a meal as can be got in the finest restaurant in K.C. … Persons wishing to have a nice, pleasant day, with good sport, and fine entertainment, cannot do better than to come to Cooley’s Lake.”
Lake Again, in July 1885, “Quite a number of young ladies and gentlemen went to Cooley’s Lake fishing on the 25th, and spent a very pleasant day, notwithstanding the whole party didn’t catch five pounds of fish.”
Cooley Lake continued to be well known, at least by hunters, for many years. In July of 1915, the Excelsior Springs Standard reported that landowners were considering “making drains on Fishing river and the Missouri river in the bottoms… east of Cooley Lake” apparently to ease flooding, which had been blamed for an influx of “German carp” into Cooley Lake.
In 1919, the Cooley Lake Hunt Club was dissolved. The bass and crappie that once filled the lake had been overrun by the German carp. The carp had decimated vegetation described as once “a great growth of moss and rushes… at times (filled with) the large round quickly leaves of the (water) lilies and yonquapins.” The “Kansas City gentlemen” who owned the private hunt club sold the property to Elmer McDavid, an Excelsior Springs auto dealer, and to James Oather Dillen, whose family then and now has long been associated with the Cooley Lake area.
In 1919, after the city’s Christmas festivities, several Excelsior Springs residents headed to “the hunting and fishing lodge at Cooley Lake to spend the weekend, remaining over Sunday.” The party included Mr. and Mrs. Walter McDavid, Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Hulen, Mr. and Mrs. T.E. Crawford, Mr. and Mrs. W.L. Silvers, Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Titus, Dr. and Mrs. T.N. Bogart, Miss Mattie Russell, Forrest Kimber, Miss Gladys Silvers, Earl McDavid, Miss Marian Titus, Miss Eleanor Bryan, and Eugene Warriner.”
In 1922, in a somewhat jocular account, the Standard reported that “Elmer McDavid, Clarence Peck, a flaming torch, dry prairie grass, and cattails combined their talents and put on a scene near Cooley Lake that would have been worth millions to a movie producer.” They had to flee for their lives from the conflagration, which scorched the top of the car and melted the tires – but the goal of quickly clearing the dry grass was accomplished.
The McDavids later sold their interest in the property to the Dillen family. James Oather Dillen was a successful stockman and grain farmer. He shipped railcar loads of mules and horses to the war effort in World War I over the Wabash rail line, which ran through his property. A descendant, Alfred Van Dillen and his wife Ella Mae Melling, lived in the residence once used as a hunt club for the “Kansas City gentlemen.”
In more recent years, it may have been the scene of many a senior graduation party, but we’re not naming any names, and don’t ask us how we know that for sure. It has also been used frequently for Boy Scout activities and by hunters of fowl and of mushrooms. Cooley Lake is now a state conservation site that attracts pelicans, swans, geese, and various other migrating fowl, and when it isn’t recovering from drought years, the shallow lake can be fully covered by blooming lotus in the summer months.
This article originally appeared in the April 2021 edition of The Phunn, the newsletter of the Excelsior Springs Museum & Archives, which members receive quarterly. Memberships support the Museum’s mission of procuring, protecting, and sharing our local history today and for generations to come. For details on how to join the Museum, check out www.esmuseum.com.
Edit: A correction was made to this article. A family member contacted us letting us know the correct spelling of the Dillen name which is mentioned several times throughout the story. Thank you!
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Glad to see Kevin’s photo used. Will drive out to see this next summer.