Fire destroys old log cabin near Kansas River

Some historians believe that the log cabin lost in the fire could possibly have been owned by Douglas County abolitionist Jacob Branson during the Bleeding Kansas period.

Firefighters are investigating the cause of a fire early Thursday morning that destroyed a small, historic cabin near the Kansas River.

At 5:17 a.m. Thursday firefighters responded to 110 Maine St. for a report of a tree on fire, said Lawrence-Douglas County Division Chief Jim King. When they arrived they discovered the cabin engulfed in flames.

The cabin was on the east side of the pond in the Sandra J. Shaw Community Health Park, just west of Burcham Park.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire, King said, and no injuries were reported. The building is considered a total loss.

So far investigators have not made a determination on the cause of the fire, King said.

“There were no utilities,” he said. “The building was vacant and actually in some disrepair.”

The City of Lawrence acquired the cabin and the park’s pond in 2014, said Rowan Green, park supervisor for Lawrence’s Department of Parks and Recreation. Since then the building has not been used for anything and has seen several instances of vandalism, he said.

In the 1930s a zoo was located in the area near the cabin largely known as Green’s Park, after its owner, Will Green, according to past Journal-World articles.

The zoo — which housed a Gila monster, coyotes, raccoons, foxes, porcupines, bears, alligators and a mountain lion — was open from the 1930s until the Kansas River flooded and ended the operation in 1951.

Green also collected trinkets, knickknacks and other oddities that caught his attention. He stored them inside the cabin.

Now, however, all that remains of the cabin is its slab foundation, Green said. The city has no immediate plans for the property.

Some historians believe that the log cabin could possibly have been owned by Douglas County abolitionist Jacob Branson during the Bleeding Kansas period.

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