Nebraskaland

Nebraskaland December 2021

NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.

Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1433144

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22 Nebraskaland • December 2021 the statehouse, residing in Lincoln at the time, and a few years as a banker in Fairbury. But it is believed that his main occupation later in life was as a farmer. McDowell had health issues and escaped to the Pacific Coast for a time to address them. His return in January of 1914 was noteworthy enough to take up one sentence in the community news section of the local newspaper. The following year, at age 58 and looking to improve his health, he picked up his tools and began to hammer, chisel and carve away at the base of a rounded, stone outcropping on a north-facing hill above Rose Creek on one of his farms. By the time he was done 10 years later, he had removed roughly 45 cubic yards of sandstone to create his two- room masterpiece. The outer room, an antechamber, has an intricately carved domed ceiling. The inner room, the burial chamber, has benches carved on either side to hold the caskets of McDowell and his neighbor, Cliff Hunter, who reportedly provided McDowell with some assistance in the project. For the finishing touches, McDowell hired a tombstone carver from Fairbury to engrave some inscriptions on the rocks around the tomb. These include "Mausoleum" above the door, as well as "Lookout Mountain," "Lover's Lane," "Puplit Rock" and "Devil's Slide." As word of McDowell's creation spread, it drew visitors and became a picnic ground. Some chose to leave their own mark, engraving names or initials and dates in the stone, both inside the tomb and on the rocks around it, a tradition that continues to this day. McDowell didn't appreciate this and fashioned a gate over the entrance to protect the inside of the tomb; he may have even closed it to A second arched doorway 6 feet high and 2½ feet wide leads to the burial chamber measuring 9 feet deep and 6½ feet wide with a less intricate domed ceiling that tops out at 9½ feet. On each side a bench is carved into a bowed wall, one 6½ feet long and the other 7, intended to hold the bodies or caskets of McDowell and his neighbor, Cliff Hunter.

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