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Clear skies. Low 62F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

Danny Pippin works on the former Jasper County Courthouse at Red Oak II on Aug. 30. The old cabin has been painstakingly removed from its original location and restored. Globe | Roger Nomer

An old cabin that was designated as a temporary Jasper County seat in 1841 is being restored at Red Oak II. Globe | Roger Nomer

A stone marker tells the history of the former Jasper County Courthouse at Red Oak II.

Carthage artist Lowell Davis and his wife, Rose, stand outside their Red Oak II home in this 2016 photo. Davis built the community over a period of years, and it continues though he is gone. Globe file

Dwight Madsen works on the former Jasper County Courthouse at Red Oak II on Aug. 30. The old cabin was designated the first temporary county seat. Globe | Roger Nomer

An old cabin that was designated as a temporary Jasper County seat in 1841 is being restored at Red Oak II. Globe | Roger Nomer

Dwight Madsen works on the former Jasper County Courthouse at Red Oak II on Aug. 30. The old cabin was designated the first temporary county seat. Globe | Roger Nomer

The newest addition to Red Oak II may be the oldest building in Jasper County. It will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Saturday’s second Red Oak II Festival.

Dwight Madsen, who works for one of Red Oak II’s property owners, and Danny Pippin, a former lumber worker and builder, have worked for the past two months reassembling the 1838-era George Hornback cabin, which was recently moved to the property from elsewhere in the county.

“I’m going to have it all cleaned out so they’ll be able to step up inside of it if they want to,” Madsen said. “We’ll probably move a big flat stone out in front and we’ll put it there temporarily until the porch goes on. But they’ll be able to step up inside of it.”

The second Red Oak II Festival, which is free to the public, promises to be bigger and better than the first, said organizer Rose Davis, the widow of the community’s creator, Lowell Davis. Lowell Davis was a Carthage artist who died on Nov. 2, 2020, at 83. He attended Mark Twain school and Carthage High School before joining the U.S. Air Force, making a name for himself as a commercial artist while living in Texas in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1974, he moved back to Carthage, bought Foxfire Farm northeast of Carthage, and in 1987 started buying homes and buildings from his hometown, Red Oak. He created Red Oak II, a small community on a loop around a tiny lake between County Roads 120 and 130 on Kafir Road; the community has continued to grow with the addition of homes and buildings from Carthage and Joplin over the years.

The artist said he didn’t believe art was limited to painting or clay or stone, and he created a number of 3D commercial art pieces that are on display at businesses and in locations around Carthage.

Carthage artist Lowell Davis and his wife, Rose, stand outside their Red Oak II home in this 2016 photo. Davis built the community over a period of years, and it continues though he is gone. Globe file

Red Oak II was another example of his art, with the buildings he had moved there and the sculptures scattered through the tiny community. Most of the buildings are held now by private owners.

At least three dozen vendors will be there selling a variety of homemade items, food, books and art. The Lowell Davis Art Gallery will be open with prints of the late artist’s work available for sale.

“People think Red Oak II is closed since Lowell passed away, and we’re not,” Davis said. “They were surprised that they can still walk around and take pictures. People have said they didn’t want to come to Red Oak because there’s no purpose, they’ve already seen it, so having the event here gives people a reason to come and spend time with their family and meet the vendors.”

Another addition to the event is a beer garden, hosted by Davis’ daughter, Wren Vickers, and the Carthage Shriners burn crew on the neighboring Foxfire Farm property. Vickers said the garden will feature drinks, pulled pork sandwiches and nachos; proceeds will go to the Shriners and their causes.

For a full list of vendors, go to the Red Oak II Facebook page.

The old cabin was originally built as a home by George Hornback sometime around 1838 on a bluff overlooking the Spring River west of present-day Carthage.

Jasper County was established on Jan. 29, 1841, and Hornback’s cabin was designated the first temporary county seat, where the county’s government was organized on Feb. 25, 1841.

A stone marker tells the history of the former Jasper County Courthouse at Red Oak II.

According to the county’s official website, then-Gov. Thomas Reynolds appointed Samuel M. Cooley, Jeremiah Cravens and Samuel B. Bright as the first county court judges, or commissioners as they are known now, and John P. Osborne as the county sheriff. The court selected Elwood B. James as the first county clerk, and on March 28, 1842, in this cabin, the court selected the site of Carthage to be the county seat.

For decades, the old cabin had been part of a two-story frame home on the original property west of Carthage on Mound Street where Bob and Ellen Sheldon raised their four children.

Bob Sheldon was known in Carthage as a hunting enthusiast, collector and firearms expert. He was also a member of the Jasper County Sheriff’s Reserve and the Carthage Kiwanis Club and a columnist for the Carthage Press and other publications. The couple ran the Old Cabin Shop for 28 years on the same property where the home is located.

The couple were murdered in the home on Oct. 11, 2008, when two men entered the home looking to steal guns and knives. The home sat empty for years until the Sheldons’ grandson, Jonathan Sheldon, and his wife, Krista, bought the property from his family to build a new home.

The grandson didn’t want to destroy the old cabin, so he sold it to Larry Sernyk, who sent Pippin and Madsen to the Sheldon property on July 11 to disassemble the cabin and bring it to Red Oak II.

Sernyk said the original plan was to bring the stone chimney and fireplace to Red Oak II in one piece, but that plan literally fell apart.

“We thought we could lay it (the chimney) down and put it on a flatbed truck and move it, but according to Danny there was virtually no mortar between the stones,” Sernyk said. “I don’t know if that means there wasn’t any ever or if it had washed out with the rain, but it collapsed at the start of the removal.”

Danny Pippin works on the former Jasper County Courthouse at Red Oak II on Aug. 30. The old cabin has been painstakingly removed from its original location and restored. Globe | Roger Nomer

Sernyk said all the stones were collected and the logs taken down and marked for restoration.

A new gabled roof with wood shake shingles has been installed, and new logs were added to replace logs that were too rotten to use.

“It’s like 80% original,” Pippin said. “Even the joists that went across the ceiling, we saved all the joists. ... So far everything has gone very well.”

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