Dam builder to be honored at Marion County Lake
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Edward C. McBurney was the civil engineer who directed construction of the earthen dam which created Marion County Lake.
His son Cleland and wife, and two grandchildren and their spouses will be present Oct. 7 at Marion County Lake for dedication of a new historical marker honoring his contribution.
McBurney and his family lived in Marion in 1937, the year in which the dam was built. They lived across the street from the family of James Meisner, county engineer who designed the park layout.
Cleland now lives in Kingman. He said the two families became good friends and were inspired by each other.
McBurney received his civil engineering degree in 1930 from Kansas State College, Manhattan.
He worked for a pipeline company, the city of Newton, and Kansas State Fish and Game Department at Pratt before joining the Soil Conservation Service in 1933.
During the next seven years, he oversaw construction of five Kansas lakes and worked closely with workers enrolled in the federal Civilian Conservation Corps.
His first project was Tonganoxie Lake near Leavenworth. Next was Reading Lake east of Emporia, then Marion County Lake.
McBurney's office was in a small building now used for storage.
Cleland was five years old when the family lived in Marion. His father often took him along to the job site.
"I had the run of the place," he said.
He learned to know the men in the CCC camp and watched as they used mules to clear the lake area of trees and brush.
Lieutenant Robert Horsley was the military commander in charge of the camp. He supervised the men when at the camp, and McBurney supervised them at work.
Horsley had a daughter the same age as Cleland, and they often played together. Cleland remembers the two of them getting "chits" (tickets) from their fathers to take to the mess hall kitchen for a soda pop.
After McBurney finished the Marion lake project, he went on to construct dams creating Lone Star Lake south of Lawrence and Crawford County Lake at Girard.
The family attended the opening of Marion County Park and Lake on May 26, 1940.
According to an account of the day in the Marion County Record, McBurney "was greatly gratified at the appearance of the site, as he always said that this, with its large drainage from grassland, was the most ideal site he had seen in the state."
The family was living in Amarillo, Texas, when World War II broke out. The war put a lot of civil engineers out of work, so McBurney decided to join the Navy.
He became part of a SeaBee, or construction battalion, which built runways on islands in the South Pacific.
After the war ended, McBurney joined the Navy Reserves, retiring as a captain in 1956.
He re-entered civil service as head of the public works department at the Naval Air Station, North Island, San Diego, Calif., where he oversaw maintenance of base facilities for 18 years.
He retired in 1972 and died in March 1994. His wife, Virginia, died July 5, 2006. Son Cleland has a sister who lives in San Diego.
Not much was reported in 1937 in local newspapers about the work McBurney himself was doing at the lake site. But completion of the dam in one year's time proved him to be an excellent engineer and manager of people.
According to a report in the Dec. 2, 1937, issue of Marion County Record, "the Marion project was the last such project to be undertaken in the state and was the first to near completion."
A bus tour of the park and lake is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. this Saturday from the parking lot at Lakeshore Drive and Upland Road.
