Jo Allyn Lowe Park

A history

Jo Allyn Lowe Park is a 31.74-acre park developed on land donated by Harold and Carolyn Price in 1971 and Joe and Etsuko Price in 1979. Funding for the park came mostly from Harold Price and Phillips Petroleum Company. The park was dedicated to Jo Allyn Lowe, founder of the Bartlesville Boys Club.

The park consists of an arboretum, picnic tables, a large fishing lake, and a handicap-accessible fishing pier at the south end of the lake. Walkers and joggers can enjoy the many paths that surround the lake and wind through the adjacent tallgrass prairie – the only tallgrass prairie in Oklahoma located inside city limits.

One of the most notable features of the park is the large arboretum, funded mostly by donations. The arboretum was developed by the City of Bartlesville, in cooperation with Public Service of Oklahoma and Friends of the Parks, and includes over 100 species of trees and shrubbery.

In 1988, members of the Landmark Preservation Council unveiled the G.L. Potteiger Cabin, a log cabin built in the late 1920s by lumberman G.L. Potteiger and hired hand Joe Washington, a Delaware Indian. The cabin was unveiled at Jo Allyn Lowe Park as a community-wide effort to preserve the state’s Native American heritage and to restore one of the few remaining log cabins which once dotted the Midwestern prairies. Donated to the LPC by Bennie and Marietta Reeves of Wann, the cabin, originally built as a hunting and fishing retreat, was removed from its former location in Dewey. The cabin was measured and all logs were numbered thanks to help from Marshall Gettys of the Historic Preservation Office of the Oklahoma Historical Society. It was then disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled at the park, where it sits to this day.

Fun facts

• The park is home to two trees that are more than 100 years old – a Chinkapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergi) and a Pecan tree (Carya illinoensis).
• The G.L. Potteiger Cabin is a prime example of Delaware craftsmanship, with half dovetail notching on its logs. The foundation includes a large piece of sandstone on the south side that is not heavily cemented in, which can be moved to allow access under the cabin.
• A Monarch butterfly garden located in the park houses a variety of native wildflowers that attract many butterflies each year.

Park amenities

• Fishing lake and handicap-accessible dock
• Arboretum
• Monarch butterfly garden
• G.L. Pottieger Cabin
• Public restrooms
• Covered picnic tables and benches
• Pathfinder Parkway trailhead