The history of Lake Gardner chronicled in a book

The Gardner Historical Museum hosted Amy Haven (right) Saturday, Dec. 3, for her book signing on the history of Lake Gardner. “A Look Back at Lake Gardner, Kansas” chronicles the first thirty years of Johnson County’s largest WPA project. Staff photos by Lynn Hermansen

Lynn Hermansen
Lhermansen@cherryroad.com

Many people think of Lake Gardner as part of the city of Gardner. Many people do not know the history of the construction of the lake.
For the past six months, the Gardner Museum of History has hosted an exhibit accompanying Amy Haven’s book on

the first thirty years of the WPA project.
A Look Back at Gardner Lake takes a deep dive into Johnson County’s largest WPA project with detailed stories and photos from families who helped build the lake as a means of survival during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years and those who lived by the lake during its “resort years.”
“This was a very necessary and important story to tell,” Haven said.
The most comprehensive book ever written about its history shares thoughtful details of President Herbert Hoover’s Great Depression-era policies that set the stage for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, including the Workers’ Progress Administration that helped with economic relief that has benefited the Gardner area for years to come.
It took 100 to 225 men to build the lake. The pond started with 100 lots of ponds sold for $100 each and $10 down.
As the rest of the country recovers from its worst period, Heaven chronicles the lake’s transformation into a resort community in the mid-20th century that gave families a haven for recreation, including an event space, a roller rink, a country club, its own newsletter “The Spillway” and more.
Government funding ceased in 1935. The camp was dismantled in 1939.
Some of the old WPA-era transient camp buildings were moved to the Johnson County Fairgrounds in the 1930s and reassembled. They are still used today.
Today, Lake Gardner is known as a private lakeside neighborhood community managed by the Lake Gardner Association. It was transformed into what it is today after the hall burned down.
The exhibit at the Gardner Museum on Main Street closes at the end of the year. Photographs, newspaper clippings and memories weave a story with the book, showing how water has been a constant reliable force and united the community through different eras of the 20th century.
The book is 176 pages with over 75 photographs and an index of over 200 names, personal interviews, stories of local residents that will bring back many memories of the older Gardner community.
Heaven is a professional general aviation aircraft broker and aviator with a passion for historic preservation. She returned to Gardner, after living in Lexington, Missouri for twenty years.
She said she was captivated by Lake Gardner’s history when she renovated her new home in 2011. Haven said she soon realized that the lake’s history had never been shared in a detailed place like the current exhibit or her book. Although she has had a career writing articles for small publications, this is her first book.