126.694.3

A side view of a structure that once served as an outdoor stage at the Lake Comar recreational facility, located eight miles north of Ames, two miles south of Story City, and one mile east of U.S. Highway 69. Comar included a boating lake fed by an artesian well, a second lake used for swimming, a nine-hole golf course, and various forms of outdoor performances. The area was a popular destination for central Iowans from 1914 through the early 1940s. In 1957, Joe and Garth Buchanan bought the property of approximately 100 acres for their home and for raising Arabian horses. This outbuilding served as storage for the horses' hay. This photograph was probably taken in the 1970s. For more information on Lake Comar, see chapter 24 in "Ames, the Early Years in Word and Picture," by Farwell T. Brown, 1993.