Welcome to the Lamar, Missouri Elks Lodge!

Welcome to the Lamar Elks Lodge #2800 and thank you for visiting our web site. Lamar is located in Barton County in the southwest corner of Missouri. The Lodge was chartered November 9th, 1996. To get to the point of earning our Charter several individuals and Nevada Elks Lodge #564 were instrumental on the road to becoming an official Elks Lodge. Establishment of the Lamar Elks was probably similar to most Lodges. To try to make a long story short, John Millirons' work transferred him to Lamar. Being a long time member of the Nevada, Missouri Elks, John became interested in establishing an Elks Lodge in Lamar. With Bill Speedy and Dave Horton, John met with members of the Nevada Elks (Carl Simpson and Lee Sparks) who generously became our sponsors. Joe Villamaria (also from Nevada Elks Lodge) coached us our first year. The first meetings were at the Blue Top Restaurant. Then John started inviting (drafting is more like it) friends and neighbors to meet with the Nevada members. The first meetings were in John's garage. These meetings were to kick off a drive to develop enough interest and members to apply for the Charter. Dennis Champlin (John's immediate neighbor) was one of the first recruits. To ease the burden on John some of the meetings were moved to his garage and playroom. The Chartering Trail was the initial Blue Top group and it grew at a fast pace to Chartering Initiation en mass at a local auditorium. Obviously, we had to have a larger facility and Bub Curless generously allowed us to meet in his bowling alley. After a time Bub offered to sell the bowling alley to us but as a fledgling Lodge, we didn't have the funds to undertake and maintain such a large facility. At this time, soon to be member, Dave Kleeman put his bar and residence up for sale. It was in our financial capability. Down came walls and then lots of rebuilding. We continue to revamp it and will continue to do so until it isn't cost effective. We are currently on the first step of a major re-modeling. For the most part the core of our members reside in Barton and neighboring counties. The membership is diverse and from many stages and walks of life. All Elk members and guests are welcome to visit our quaint little Lodge. Our address is 58 North 1st Lane, which is the service road on the east side of Highway 71, and the north side of Lamar. Our Lodge is visible from Highway 71.

Charter Officers:
John Millirons, Exalted Ruler Jim Fast, Chaplain
Ivan Frieden, Esteemed Leading Knight Larry Martinez, Tiler
Gene Davis, Esteemed Loyal Knight Doug Davis, Secretary
Dennis Champlin, Esteemed Lecturing Knight Randy Davis, Treasurer
Richard Walker, Inner Guard Mike O'Sullivan, Esquire
Trustees: William Speedy, Roland Marti and Carl Woodward

Sincerely,

Burford Gunkel