Breathing new life into Red Oak 2 - KOAM TV 7

A local artist known for his collections on both the very small and very large scale is breathing new life into his collections. Artist Lowell Davis' work has been sold across the globe over the past thirty years, however he has now put down his paint brush and picked up some trash.

"My wrist went out on me", Davis said, "It's got arthritis in it, so I'm not able to paint or sculpt any longer, but I can still do my metal sculptures, which I love. I've had those in mind ever since I first started. My metal sculptures using junk and antiques."

And it isn't just junk and antiques that Davis gathers. Where some people collect stamps or bottle caps this local artist chose to collect old buildings, and soon enough he had an entire town.  

"This was a cornfield out here," Davis said. "And then I looked back at my hometown, which both sides of my ancestor's pioneered, and saw it turning into a ghost town. And so I thought I'd start saving some of the buildings."

He saved his grandfather's store, red oak's school house, and even some old gas stations from Route 66, to name a few. Thirty years later he has his own village, and named it after the town that started it all.

"To me it was like a big blank canvass," Davis said. "This corn field and as an artist, well what my art material was, was what somebody else threw away."

Davis has recently sold many of the buildings in Red Oak 2. It's church offers live music every Saturday night and even offers church services on Sunday mornings. He hopes the new owners will bring new life to this sleepy town.

"I thought they were going to open it up this spring, but then the bridge is out here on route 66 and that's where most of our tourists are from," Davis said. 

Despite the closure Red Oak 2 tourists still manage to find this hidden Missouri gem.