Dinsmoor (1843-1932), schoolteacher, Civil War veteran, farmer and Populist politician, settled in Lucas in 1891 with his wife. In addition to his eccentric creations, he had the first electric lights in Lucas County. Known for wild drinking bouts and cavorting with girls half his age, Dinsmoor had strong opinions about politics and religion. He was to known to approach his preacher after sermons to tell him where he was wrong. But in 1924, he really raised eyebrows when he married his second wife – a 20 year old Czechoslovakian housekeeper (he was 81). They went on to have 2 children.

Dinsmoor started building his 11-room house in 1907 at the age of 64. It is made of many tons of limestone cut to look like logs. The cabin has furniture of his own design, massive fireplaces, stuffed bald eagles and 3000 feet of molding.

Dinsmoor then set to work on the Garden in 1908. The yard is a veritable concrete jungle of 15 cement 40' tall trees with 150 figures perched in them, surrounded by about 50 additional sculptures and a dining hall. About 113 tons (2,273 sacks) of cement went into the Garden. He opened the first floor of his home and gardens to tourists in 1908 while he continued building. In 1927, he wrote a history of his "Cabin Home in the Garden of Eden". Dinsmoor continued building until a few years before he died at age 89. The project was financed with his Civil War pension, money inherited from his first wife and tourist admissions.

The Garden of Eden is basically the history of the world according to Dinsmoor – a mixture of biblical scenes intermingled with political messages. Giant cement letters spell out “Garden of Eden” at one side of the yard. Adam and Eve greet visitors at the front gate (Eve offering the Apple of Friendship).

Originally Adam and Eve were naked but as more visitors came to the place, the ladies of Lucas went to Dinsmoor and demanded that something be done about the sinful statues. Adam, modeled after Dinsmoor himself, was covered with a Masonic apron and Eve was dressed in a coat.

Above the figures of Adam and Eve are an armed Devil, two storks, frolicking children, and the All-Seeing Eye. Elsewhere in the branches are the depictions of Cain’s murder of Abel and other Old Testament stories.

In 1912, the arrival of Arizona and New Mexico into the Union drove him to erect a concrete Stars and Stripes. His “Survival of the Fittest” sculpture group is a progressive chain of worm, bird, cat, dog, Indian and Yankee.

Dinsmoor’s last work was the Crucifixion of Labor. Mankind, represented by Labor, is crucified while a banker, lawyer, preacher and doctor complacently watch. Each figure is labeled to make the iconography clear. On one column, an octopus (labeled “The Trusts”) grabs at the world while a soldier and child are trapped in two of its tentacles. The Goddess of Liberty Tree has Liberty driving a spear thru the head of another octopus and freeing citizens.

Among Dinsmoor’s last creations was a backyard mausoleum. When his first wife died in 1917, he built it and then dug her up from the local cemetery. He surrounded her coffin in cement inside to ensure it wouldn’t be moved again. He arranged for his body to be put there when he went. Dinsmoor would amuse and startle the tourists by bringing out a concrete coffin and lieing in it. He had a double-exposed photo made showing him looking at himself in the coffin. This photo is now inside the mausoleum. When he died he was embalmed, placed in the glass-sided coffin and put on display. He is still there for the world to see.

At one time, many of the sculptures were colored with natural dye but the colors for the most part have faded over the years. During the Depression, the Garden was sold for taxes and vines grew around the statuary until the 1970s when it was restored and opened to the public. It is now listed in National Register of Historic Places.

For more, see these websites: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.