Karen Spragg: A hardworking difference maker and historian

In every community there are people whose lives quietly touch everything good that happens. In Lovell, one of those people is Karen Spragg, organizer, volunteer, historian and the driving force behind the Lovell-Kane Area Museum.

For more than half a century, she has been the kind of person who sees a need and steps forward, whether that meant climbing into a rescue vehicle in the 1970s, creating the area museum in 2011 or picking up a rake to clear the old Kane Cemetery in 2019.

Spragg’s story is rooted in this place. Born Karen Ellis, she grew up in Kane and returned home with her husband, Wayne, after years away, carrying a deep love for the community’s past and a determination to preserve it. What began in her living room as a few friends talking about old photos and fading memories has become the Lovell-Kane Area Museum, a thriving tribute to local history.

Growing up in a lost town

“There was a school out there,” she remembers. “It was built in 1916 and closed in 1945. After that, they used it as a meeting house and a church, and then they bused the kids into Lovell.”

Her memories of childhood sound simple and unhurried.

“We had potlucks, and the men of Kane moved the old schoolhouse down and turned it into our clubhouse. The outdoor toilet became the kitchen. We didn’t have much, but we didn’t know we were poor.”

Family, she says, was at the heart of life in Kane.

“We always had big get-togethers with my mother’s family,” she recalled, smiling as she described the old characters who lived out there, how everyone knew everyone and helped one another. She can still picture the shade of trees and the flowers around every house, noting, “There were trees and flowers, and people had yards. None of that sagebrush was there then.”

Her eyes lit up as she turned the pages of an old scrapbook, sharing the stories behind each photograph. Saturdays meant piling into the car for a night at the Armada Theatre in Lovell.

“We always went to Roy Rogers or Gene Autry or Dale Robertson movies,” she said. “That’s what they showed on weekends.”

For fun, the kids turned the nearby hills into their playgrounds.

“We climbed all the hills and hiked up to Katie’s Nipple,” she said with a laugh. “When I was 63, I took my grandkids up there, and my name was still carved in the rocks from when I was a girl.”

“Everybody knew everybody,” she added. “We took care of each other.”

When the water came

That sense of permanence vanished in the 1960s when the Yellowtail Dam project forced Kane’s families to leave. At first it was only a rumor, then came the official word: a massive dam would be built more than 30 miles away, and when the reservoir filled, it would swallow their farms, homes and the streets of Kane.

“My folks moved out of their home April 18, 1965,” she recalled. “They closed the post office that February. My mother was the postmistress.”

The loss still stings. Families were told that, once the reservoir filled, their homes would be underwater.

“The Bureau of Reclamation did the math wrong,” she said with a touch of sass. “They said it would be flooded, but water has never, ever been in Kane.”

Today, with the town site far from the water, you can still see the outline of the old buildings. They were not allowed to move back. By the time the error was realized, it was too late. Everyone had moved on to new places and left that life behind.

Her family received about $23,000 for their farm, far less than what their land was worth.

“Most everyone lost,” she said remorsefully.

The Lovell-Kane area Museum

It was in 2011 that Karen decided to bring Kane back to life. The museum that now stands just north of the Lovell Chamber of Commerce began that year in her living room. Though it now tells the story of both Lovell and Kane, it truly stands as the embodiment of her vision and legacy.

What began as a small gathering of neighbors determined to save the stories, photographs and artifacts of Kane before they were lost forever grew through Karen’s determination into the museum that preserves them today.

“We started with nothing but old stories and a few binders,” she said. “I called people I knew and said, ‘We’re going to start a museum. Do you want to be on the board?’ Ten said yes that day.”

Meetings moved from her home to the Lovell Fire Hall as plans grew. “The chamber gave us a corner, and we manned it every day,” she said.

That dream became reality when Loretta Bischoff donated a house on Oregon Avenue, which volunteers remodeled from top to bottom. By Mustang Days of 2017, the Lovell-Kane Area Museum officially opened its doors.

Each exhibit bears Spragg’s touch, from photographs of the old Kane town site before the dam to displays of early ranching, schools and family life.

“I love doing the museum,” she said, gesturing toward the carefully arranged exhibits.

Staying busy keeping history alive

Her advice to me for life after retirement is simple and sincere.

“Stay busy,” said the energetic 82-year-old Spragg, smiling from behind the counter at the Kane Museum. “Find a hobby. It keeps you alive. It keeps your brain going.”

It’s advice that perfectly reflects the way she’s lived her own life, making sure the past doesn’t disappear. For the last 14 years, her “hobby” has been preserving the memories of a town that vanished from history, ensuring that Kane and the people who once called it home are never forgotten.