As I was searching for parks along our route from Linn Valley, Kansas south toward Houston, Texas, Salmon Lake was roughly 180 miles from our previous campground and on the route we needed to take. It was a little longer drive than we usually do, but it was the only park that was not far off the beaten path. We arrived there on Thursday, June 24, paid for our stay, and headed in to find a spot. As we drove in, we try to fit the roads to what the map looks like. After figuring it out, we headed to the field to find a 50amp site.
We were very intrigued with all the old buildings that we passed on our way to our site, so I decided I would walk around the park (with Lucy) and take pictures. We found a site back in a field under the trees so we could have some shade. There were three other trailers in the field with us. Then the next day someone else pulled in a couple of sites down from us under the trees.
They have a beautiful spring fed lake that people flock to; they have a huge slide and a dock in the middle. When we got there they were still working on it as an abundance of rain around Memorial Day caused Salmon Lake to flood, causing significant damage; however repairs have been in progress and the park is again open for swimming. The main damage was to the dam; water created a hole through it and went down the creek, which led to no water to swim in. “It was carving through the dam, basically, just that much water. It carved a hole through the dam and the lake just went right on down the creek bed,” said Bethany Owens, the Co-Owner of Salmon Lake Park.
Salmon Lake Park currently has most of the repairs to the dam completed, but it still needs grass. The stage and several aesthetic structures were damaged as well. The stage, used for major music festivals, will be finished by their next festival, taking place in late July as well as their popular Bluegrass Festival later in the year.
Salmon Lake Park was developed in the 1960s, when Floyd Salmon and his wife, Fannie, purchased the 50 acres for the park. Salmon initially built the lake for watering cattle. A few years later, the couple opened the lake to the public.
Over the years, the family transformed the land into a nostalgic park, filled with old buildings – some dating back to the early 1900s. Many of them have been renovated into cabins and reunion halls. The park also is filled with Floyd's artistic creations, made from old machine parts.
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| Batmobile |
It still features “the barge with two diving boards,” a center lake pier, a playground, a snack shack, and nearly 300 camper hookups.
A kids' favorite is the ten-foot water wheel, powering a grist mill, with its gears hidden in an replica of an old man getting spanked by an old woman, as he turns the crank.
In September 1976, the Salmons launched the Labor Day Bluegrass Festival. For more than four decades the couple helped to bolster the community by attracting the biggest names in bluegrass to a four-day festival. Among the attendees were hundreds of grass-roots music lovers who traveled the country to camp out and hear their favorite bands.
In 1997, the Salmons began a second bluegrass festival, the Gospel Bluegrass Festival, organized every Memorial Day Weekend.
In recent years, the Salmons turned the festivals over to the Texas Bluegrass Music Association.
David Powers said Leah became enchanted with the park last year after camping there, but she had to sell the idea of purchasing it to her family.
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| Office |
The park has been on the market for many years. After the death of Floyd Salmon in January, however, the creator of Salmon Lake Park, and the man who brought bluegrass music to Grapeland, the Salmon family began seriously looking for a new owner.
“We weren't sure if the park was going to be ours,” Leah Powers said. “There were other offers, but they all fell through. God kept opening doors for us.” Powers family members have run the park since April, initially with help from the Salmon family. “People keep asking us, 'Are you going to change stuff? Will you get rid of stuff? Our response is no way. We have the same vision Floyd had.”
The Powers family has a pioneer spirit, of sorts. They home school and home birth, working together in everything they do. Their first major group project was building a log house. They then worked and ran a machine shop in the Jacksonville area. Their children – six boys and three girls – range in age from 4 months to 21. They they have two grandchildren.
The Salmon family sold the park to the Powers family in April 2018.
Members of the Powers family plan to keep the same rules as the Salmons. “We are Christians,” David Powers said. “We want there to be a family atmosphere here. We plan to adhere to the rules that were set by the Salmons. Maybe we'll enforce them a little more stringently, especially no alcohol and no loud music. We've even considered adding a dress code.”
Many of their buildings are cottages which are rented out to guests. They are all really neat looking.
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| Tree House |
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| Sunshine House |
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