Red Oak II: Discover Carthage MO’s Living Ghost Town on Route 66

Red Oak II: The Living Ghost Town That One Man Built

Where Is Red Oak II?

Address / GPS: Use Google Maps: search ‘Red Oak II Carthage Missouri.’ The property is located off Kafir Road northeast of Carthage. Signage approaching the site is limited — Davis intentionally made small handmade signs rather than commercial markers.

General Location: Approximately 3–4 miles northeast of Carthage, Missouri, and just off the Route 66 alignment. From Route 66 / MO-96 east of Carthage, turn north on Road 130 for about 2 miles to Kafir Road, then turn right (west). Red Oak II is approximately 3/4 mile down on the south side.

Hours: Open dawn to dusk, daily. Free to enter. A donation box is on the property — donations support maintenance and preservation.

Admission: Free. Donations accepted.

Important Note: Red Oak II is a private community where people live. Walk and drive the loop road, explore and photograph — but treat the property with the respect you’d give someone’s neighborhood. Do not enter structures without invitation.

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Driving Context: Red Oak II is approximately 4 miles northeast of Carthage and 13 miles east of Joplin. The nearest Route 66 alignments run through Carthage on Garrison Avenue / MO-96. Access is via a gravel road off Kafir Road — suitable for standard vehicles, not ideal for low-clearance vehicles in wet conditions.

The History of Red Oak II

Lowell Davis and the Original Red Oak

Lowell Davis was born in 1937 and grew up in Red Oak, Missouri, a small farming community in Lawrence County. His family’s connections to the town ran deep: his great-grandfather Weber operated the Red Oak blacksmith shop, and his father ran the Red Oak General Store, where a young Lowell first discovered his interest in sculpture and painting. The town was alive during his childhood — a working community of farms, businesses, and neighbors.

After high school, Davis left Red Oak, joined the Air Force, and later worked as an art director at an advertising agency in Dallas, Texas. His Americana artwork — paintings and bronze sculptures depicting rural Missouri life, farm animals, and the textures of small-town existence — earned him international recognition. He was called the Norman Rockwell of Rural Art and his limited-edition figurines sold widely through the 1970s and 1980s. He eventually settled on a farm near Carthage, close to where he had grown up.

The Ghost Town Discovery and the Decision

When Davis returned to visit the original Red Oak in the 1970s, he found that the town that had formed him was nearly gone. Like hundreds of other small rural communities across the Midwest, Red Oak had emptied after World War II as young people migrated to cities and agricultural economies consolidated. Buildings stood vacant. Businesses closed. The population that had given the town its identity had dispersed.

Davis described his response with characteristic directness: ‘Red Oak II is a combination of a painting and a sculpture, and it is just made from things that someone else threw away.’ In 1987, he began buying original buildings from Red Oak and from other abandoned Missouri ghost towns — moving them to his farm cornfield near Carthage, restoring them, and reassembling them into a working community. The blacksmith shop where his great-grandfather worked was one of the first buildings to be relocated. The General Store where his father worked followed. Each structure was physically disassembled, transported, and rebuilt on the new site.

The Buildings and What They Hold

Across approximately 60 acres, Red Oak II eventually included a Phillips 66 service station (relocated from its original site on Route 66 in Avilla, Missouri), a schoolhouse, a general store, a jail, a town hall, a feed store, a diner, a blacksmith shop, a working church, and multiple homes. An 1850s Civil War-era house was relocated from White Oak, Missouri. The Klinginsmith Cabin — an older log structure — was moved log by log from a field in La Russell, Missouri.

Davis lived in the property’s Belle Starr house — a restored structure from the childhood home of Belle Starr, the infamous frontier outlaw who grew up near Carthage before her career as an outlaw began. Davis’s own sculptures and paintings appear throughout the property. Antique vehicles in various states of picturesque decay are scattered through the grounds. The working church hosts music jams on Saturday evenings and services on Sunday mornings.

Lowell Davis’s Death and Legacy

Lowell Davis died at his home in Red Oak II in November 2020 at the age of 83, with his wife Rose by his side. He was buried in Red Oak II’s own cemetery — the same churchyard cemetery that had been part of the original community he was recreating. His grave has become a quiet pilgrimage point for visitors who leave wildflowers or small tokens.

Davis left a request for the community’s future: ‘Keep it art.’ The property continues to be inhabited and maintained, and visitors are still welcomed from dawn to dusk at no charge. The character of the place — thoughtful, unhurried, genuinely strange, and entirely original — continues to reflect Davis’s vision.

Lowell Davis: The Norman Rockwell of Rural Art

Davis’s formal artistic career produced work that resonated particularly with Americans who had grown up in rural communities and felt the pull of a disappearing way of life. His bronze sculptures — farm animals, barn scenes, rural Missouri imagery — sold through limited-edition releases and earned him a following in the United States, Germany, and elsewhere. His paintings depicted the specific textures of Midwestern rural existence with the precision and affection that gave him the Norman Rockwell comparison.

Red Oak II was understood by critics and admirers not as a hobby or a vanity project but as an extension of his artistic practice into three dimensions and at architectural scale. When he said the community was ‘a combination of a painting and a sculpture,’ he meant it precisely. The same impulse that drove his smaller bronze figures drove the decision to haul entire buildings across 20 miles of Missouri farmland and rebuild them in a cornfield.

What to Expect When You Visit

Visitors typically drive or walk a half-mile gravel loop road through the village, stopping to explore the buildings, read the interpretive signs, and absorb a landscape that is simultaneously rural, historical, artistic, and inhabited. The effect is somewhere between a film set, a folk art installation, and an actual neighborhood — because it is all three at once.

The buildings are the most immediately striking element: actual 1920s and 1930s structures, not reproductions, in varying states of maintained-vintage condition. The Phillips 66 station has its period-correct pumps. The general store has its original fixtures. Antique vehicles — trucks, cars, farm equipment — are arranged throughout the grounds with an eye toward composition rather than restoration. Chickens wander. Cats appear and disappear. The church, if services are in session on Sunday, adds the sound of singing.

Honest caveats: Red Oak II is a private community where real people live, and the visitor experience varies with the weather, the season, and who happens to be around. There are no guides, no scheduled tours, and no guarantee that any particular building will be open to enter. The gravel road is navigable by standard vehicles but can be muddy after rain. The property is not well-marked from the main road; download directions in advance. There is no cell service in parts of the area.

Best Time to Visit and Photography Tips

Spring and fall offer the best combination of dramatic Missouri light and comfortable walking conditions. The property looks its most atmospheric in early morning mist or late afternoon golden light — conditions that play beautifully on the weathered wood siding, rusting vehicles, and period-correct signage. Summer is green and vivid; winter strips the property to its bones in a way that is equally compelling for photography.

• The Phillips 66 station is the most immediately iconic photograph — position yourself from the gravel road and shoot toward the station facade with the period pumps in the foreground. Morning light from the east is ideal for this angle.
• The interior of the general store, if accessible, rewards a wide-angle shot from the doorway — the accumulated merchandise, fixtures, and memorabilia inside read as a single composition. Include the door frame to vignette the image and give it depth.
• Lowell Davis’s grave in the churchyard cemetery is a quiet and moving photograph — a simple marker in a historic cemetery surrounded by the village he built. Shoot at dusk for the most contemplative light, with the church visible in the background.

Tips for Visiting Red Oak II

• Download directions in advance — Red Oak II has limited signage from the main road and the approach on Kafir Road requires a GPS pin or specific turn-by-turn directions. Cell service may be unreliable near the property.
• The property is open dawn to dusk. A donation box is on-site — donations go directly to maintenance of the buildings and grounds. This is one of the few Route 66 stops where a donation has direct, visible impact.
• Drive or walk the full half-mile loop road slowly — buildings and details appear gradually, and the property is large enough that rushing through loses the cumulative effect Davis intended.
• People live here. Treat the property as a neighborhood, not a theme park — don’t enter structures uninvited, don’t disturb residents, and be respectful of the fact that this is someone’s home as well as a public attraction.
• Lowell Davis’s grave is in the churchyard cemetery on the property. Some visitors bring wildflowers or small tokens — this is understood as a mark of respect rather than a commercial gesture.
• The church holds services on Sunday mornings and music jams on Saturday evenings — if your visit timing overlaps, both are worth experiencing.
• Accessibility: the loop road is gravel and uneven in places. The grounds are open-air and walkable for most visitors, but the terrain is rural and unpaved.

2026 Route 66 Centennial Connection

2026 Route 66 Centennial Connection

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Red Oak II a ghost town?

Not exactly — it looks like one, but it is actually an inhabited community. Red Oak II is an open-air art installation and living village: real early 20th-century buildings, relocated from genuine ghost towns, restored and assembled by artist Lowell Davis beginning in 1987. People live in several of the buildings. The church holds services. The property is free to visit during daylight hours, but it is a private community, not a publicly maintained attraction.

Who was Lowell Davis and what happened to him?

Lowell Davis (1937–2020) was an internationally recognized Americana artist known as the Norman Rockwell of Rural Art. He grew up in Red Oak, Missouri, found his childhood hometown had become a ghost town, and spent decades building Red Oak II as a tribute to it. He lived in Red Oak II’s Belle Starr house until his death in November 2020 at age 83 and was buried in the property’s churchyard cemetery. His widow Rose and the community’s residents continue to maintain and develop the property.

Is there an admission fee for Red Oak II?

No. Red Oak II is free to visit from dawn to dusk. A donation box on the property accepts voluntary contributions that go directly toward the maintenance of the buildings and grounds. Given that the property is maintained by its residents and receives no public funding, donations are genuinely welcomed and directly useful.

Is Red Oak II the same as the original Red Oak, Missouri?

No. The original Red Oak, Missouri is approximately 18–20 miles north of Carthage. It still exists but is largely abandoned — a true ghost town with only a cemetery, a church, and a few remaining structures. Red Oak II is Lowell Davis’s recreation of that community’s buildings and spirit, built from 1987 onward on his farm cornfield near Carthage. Some of the buildings in Red Oak II came from the original Red Oak; others came from different Missouri ghost towns.

Can you go inside the buildings at Red Oak II?

Some buildings are accessible to visitors; others are private residences. The general rule is to treat the property as a neighborhood: look, photograph, and admire from the exterior, but do not enter a building without an explicit invitation from a resident. The church is open during services. The experience of walking the grounds and the road is complete even without entering structures.

Final Thoughts on Red Oak II

Red Oak II is the kind of stop that Route 66 travelers describe as the most unexpected thing they encountered on the entire drive. It doesn’t advertise itself from the highway. It doesn’t charge admission. It doesn’t have a gift shop or a parking attendant. It has a gravel road, a half-mile loop, original 1920s buildings that were moved from ghost towns across Missouri, and a cemetery where the man who built it is buried. Lowell Davis described it as a combination of a painting and a sculpture made from things someone else threw away — and that description is both accurate and completely insufficient.

Nearby Route 66 Highlights

• Jasper County Courthouse, Carthage — 4 miles southwest — an 1894 Richardsonian Romanesque courthouse built from local Carthage stone, anchoring one of the most beautifully preserved downtown squares in Missouri.