Parks

Parks in Kearney Today

East side:

Nina Hammer
Collins
Harvey – baseball/softball

West side:

Baldwin – soccer
Harmon
Lincoln Way - soccer, softball
Pioneer
Centennial

Parks of the Past in Kearney:

West Kearney Park – 2 acres in center of section
        Condemned in 1913 – all streets, alleys, avenues and boulevards vacated
        ½ section purchased by Industrial School to be used for agriculture

Riverside Park – At south end of 8th Ave (Steinbrink’s) between 11th & 13th Streets.
        Centennial is also between 11th & 13th Streets but east between 5th & 7th

Kearney Lake – ice skating and slide in winter
        Boating, swimming, diving in summer
        Dance pavilion

Union Pacific Park – between depot and 2nd, Railroad and street
        Oregon Trail marker, dedicated in 1910

Parks in Other Buffalo County Towns

None described in Centennial books

Mabel Vohland’s Trail Dust to Star Dust does include parks
        Davis Park – Land donated in 1887 by Isaac Davis.
                He and nephew James had established the Gibbon Mill
        City Park - Across from the Post Office.
                Women’s Club sponsored project of landscaping and planting shrubs & flowers
                Monument
                    a. Names of Gibbon Homestead Colony members
                    b. Honorary members – Individuals already here when Colony arrived
 

Recreation on the Wood River
– Tied to Flour Mills

Shelton – Old timers remember

Lake Shelton at the north edge of town above the dam
Popular picnic spot
Ice skate in winter
Swim and boat in summer.
For several years in the early 1900's a small steamboat ran on the lake
        Area boat races were held.

Glenwood – Glenwood Park, created at the widened river above the dam

Late 1880s
Family picnics, swimming, boating, fishing
Baseball field on the flat area above the river bed
Owned and operated by Charles Nelson
Closed around 1910 after Nelson’s death

White Bridge Park –

1 mile north of Glenwood (92nd Road)
2 miles east (Antelope Road)
Southeast corner of intersection
J. J. Klein owned 80 acres, Wood wanders through west to east
Probably opened in 1903

Advertised during June & July 1903 as 35 minutes from Kearney.
        Items about people picnicking there started in August
Advertised as 4 miles north of KMA in August ads

Fourth of July celebration at the park in 1904

Bridge painted white and won an award in Feb 1905,
        Washed out in spring flood in June, replaced with metal suspension bridge.
                [Why was it called White Bridge Park before that?]

Jacob J Klein died in May 1938 at age 72 and is buried in the Kearney cemetery

And Also: (from the Hub)