In 2024, Sybil and her husband Maan donated their 79-acres of land to Legacy creating Iron Creek Preserve. This is a piece Sybil wrote reminiscing about a cabin that was built on the land by her stepfather in the 1970s.  

“The Cabin” or “Jewell’s Folly”
September 2024 – By Sybil Kolon

John and Lois on the back porch of the farmhouse. (About 1985)

To those who knew this place, and others who will know it in a new way: 

It was more than a cabin, but that’s what we called it.  It was a work of art.  An expression of one man’s dream.  John Jewell’s life-sized model.[1]  It lasted long enough to see him out.  He created one pod–six-sided, during the summer of 1976, then another, then another–completed by July 1980.  He was 58 years old by then, still working and living in Detroit during the week. 

The first pod was the kitchen and dining area, of course.  The second was the living area and bedroom.  The third a screened in porch/bedroom.  Many a stew was assembled over the firepit just outside. 

Pictures of the cabin from the original photo album.

Pictures confirm the dates.  Twenty pages with 57 photos make up the photo album Lois Jewell created with pictures taken by John.  The title is “Jewell’s Folly.”  If that was a folly, I’ll take another.

This has always been a special place, nestled in the hollow of a hill at the edge of a gravel pit.  Lois dreamed of turning the gravel pit into an outdoor amphitheater.  The acoustics were superb, she proclaimed.[2]

John died on July 5, 1997, just over a year after Lois.  The cabin was savable then.  We did not know how; our attempts were feeble.  Only John knew how.  The cabin collapsed years ago, but the events that took place there will not be lost.   

Its remains were dealt with in August by staff of Legacy Land Conservancy and volunteers–including the family of John and Lois.  We saved a few remaining relics, including an empty can of Old Milwaukee beer–John’s favorite. 

AmeriCorps member Annika Moran holds a salamander found hiding under the remains of the cabin.

There will be a bench for quiet contemplation, I’m sure.  Someday there may be more.  There is always more.  This will be one of many special places on the Iron Creek Preserve.  After 200 years of it literally being sawn and quartered from wilderness into someone’s dream of a farm, now it can return to nature.

Before too much more time has passed, almost in the blink of an eye, all of our memories of Jewell’s Folly will cease to be, along with all the previous memories that were formed by humans in this place.  Will any of it matter?  There are more memories and stories to be created.  What has passed will inform the future in some measure.  In the meantime, we treasure what we have and hope for future Follies.

[1] John Jewell (1922-1997) was an architectural model maker, artist, carpenter, inventor, craftsman, thinker and doer.

[2] Lois Jewell (1919-1996) talented cellist who dreamed of being a conductor, but life got in the way.

Over the course of a few workdays in August, a small group of volunteers helped clear away the remaining portions of the cabin in preparation of Iron Creek Preserve’s opening in spring 2025. A special thank you to everyone at the workdays who helped!