The Jerry Wells Cabin

Going east on Hwy 34, do many of you recognize the black and white cabin that sits between Nick Cattell's apartments and the Frontier Trading post?

Click on picture to enlarge

I have only been in Lucas County for eleven years and have been trying for quite some time to find out more about this cabin that used to sit buried behind trees and thick brush until recently when Nick started clearing the land surrounding this very interesting building.

There is no road going into the property so it makes it hard to get very close to the cabin.  Nick is trying to get that problem taken care of.  In fact he has big plans for the area surrounding this cabin.  More on that in the near future.

Jerry Wells did not build the cabin.  It was built in the 1940's by someone else and then Jerry purchased it sometime in the 1950's and had the start of Lake Vista Restaurant in it just long enough to build the new Lake Vista log sided building next door.  Maybe you ate there years ago.  Bonnie Stone remembered eating their steak dinners. 

This picture to the left shows the cabin in 1958.  You may notice that in this picture Hwy 34 is even with the restaurant and the cabin.  These pictures were taken before the road was lowered.

The picture to the right shows the Lake Vista Restaurant in 1958.  This building is now part of Nick's apartments next to the cabin.  The siding is different and it is attached to the other apartments, so it is hard to recognize.

In 1974 the Poush's bought the restaurant and added a lounge.  

In 1959, Jerry Wells built the Lake Vista Motel.  He borrowed $1,200 from George Gartin at First State Bank in Chariton.  The Motel was built with reclaimed lumber from the Mallory Castle.  You could rent a room for $2 a night in 1959 and 1960.  When the roads got so muddy they were impassable, Jerry would go into town and bring people out to the restaurant and the motel in the trailer he pulled behind his tractor.  Road construction was being done on Hwy 34 and sometimes vehicles could not get through.  This was the time when crews were lowering the Highway in that area.

The Lake Vista Motel building is still there on Hwy 34, but it looks quite different than the above picture. If you look to the west from Nick's apartments you will see the building, but it is now painted gray.  One family purchased the building and it is their home

 
This old barn (shown to the left) sits near the cabin and is still in fairly good condition.  Underneath the barn is a basement where they used to milk cows.

While Nick was cleaning out the cabin and the barn, he found lots of interesting objects.  There were lots of wooden hand carved decoys, old coins, old newspapers, handwritten journals that had been written back in the 1890's, trunks full of clothes and even an old wedding dress.

Nick is still in the process of cleaning up the old building, but someday soon maybe he will allow people to come in and take a look at it.  Next time you are driving east on Hwy 34, just after you pass Lake Ellis and before you get to the Frontier Trading Post, take a look to your left and see if you can spot the cabin up on the hill.