Steele Homestead Museum
Site Information
Location:
Located within Lake Scott State Park. Six tenths of a mile from the south park entrance
GPS Coordinates: N 38º 40.402' W 100º55.127'
Intrinsic Qualities:
Site Logistics:
- Direct access off park road
- A sidewalk and foot path lead to the front entrance
In 1888, Herbert and Eliza Steele homesteaded the land that now encompasses Lake Scott Park. A large stone monument bears their names and overlooks the stone house they called home while living along Ladder Creek. The State of Kansas acquired this property in 1928, and shortly thereafter, built a dam to create a lake to enhance the park.
Herbert Steele built a home in 1893 for his family. It was a simple dugout, later updated to a four-room house using sandstone gathered from the surrounding bluffs. The Steele Home, now a museum site, preserved, much as it was one hundred years ago, and now serves to display the furnishings and tools used by early sesttlers.
Located in Lake Scott State Park, the Steele homestead comprises six hundred forty of the one thousand one hundred eighty acres.