You’ve located another stop in this set of geocaches that are part of the Visit Abilene Kansas Geotour, find them all, complete your passport and earn your trackable Geocoin.
Cleyson LeRoy Brown was born February 3, 1872 in Brown’s Mill, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of Jacob and Mary Brown’s five children and the family decided to move to Dickinson County, Kansas in 1880. After graduating from Abilene High School, Brown worked as a school teacher, attended a business college, and worked as the manager of a creamery in Wichita.
Brown built himself a large empire of companies throughout the early 1900s. There was a total of 85 companies within the Brown empire including: Brown Telephone Co., United Power and Light Co., Clear Creek Power and Development Co., Sunflower Shoe Stores Co., United Aero Co., United Life Building Inc., United Insurance Co., Sunflower Hotel Co., United Oil and Refining Co., United Pipeline Co., United Grocery Store Co. (Piggly-Wiggly Stores), and Beach Oil Co.
Having amassed a great sum of money, Brown decided he should give back to his community. Brown and his siblings formed the Brown Memorial Foundation in memory of their parents. With the foundation, they constructed the Brown Memorial Home for the Aged and a 226-acre park open to the public. At the time, the park cost approximately $1,000 a day to operate. However, it was free to the public and included a swimming lake, golf course, zoo, and camps for boys and girls.
Brown Memorial Park was a huge attraction in its day. The lake was often filled with swimmers and canoes. Local Sea Scouts would practice sailing skills on a massive ship that sat in the lake. Weekend visitor totals consistently reached over 5,000 people, occasionally reaching as high as 20,000 people. It seems hard to believe today, that Brown’s Park drew in so many people, and was considered a major amusement park for the area, and was free to the public!
Many aspects of the Brown Memorial Park had to be closed over the years after Brown’s death due to lack of funding. However, the Brown Memorial Home still continues to offer affordable housing for senior citizens, camping is still offered for youth in scouting programs, and residents around the area are still welcome to enjoy walking around the park. At first glance, you may not see much evidence of what the park used to be like, since the lake dried up long ago. However, if you look closely, there are several stone structures still standing (including many of the structures for the zoo) and the masts of the Sea Scout ship stand close to a nature trail (since they are the only part of the ship remaining, it is a rather odd sight to see).
(Thanks to the Dickinson County Historical Society for all the great information above!)
PASSPORT Turn-in: Upon completing the geotour please turn Completed passport into our Mailbox at additional Waypoint and our staff will mail you a geotour Coin while supplies last.