Desert Pattern

ENCANTO PARK PHOENIX PARK BEAUTIFUL

WITH beauty on every hand in its many forms and fancies-it is difficult, without delving generously into superlatives, to attempt a portrayal of Phoenix in any of her many and varied features.Through the magic of irrigation, a desert waste has been transformed into a metropolitan city of rare beauty with palm lined streets, sweet scented citrus groves, year-round green lawns and flower gardens in profusion. Extensive agricultural enterprises team in making this fast growing city an important and prosperous commonwealth-the capital city of a most interesting state.

Like the mythical Egyptian bird whose name it bears, Phoenix has arisen, fresh and beautiful, from the ruins of a prehistoric city which once occupied this site, and many visitors, upon first seeing Phoenix, are startled and amazed to find, not a sand-swept desert waste as envisioned, but a city and valley of un-surpassed scenic and cultural beauty. In keeping with this almost incredible development, Phoenix has created within her bounds, beautiful Encanto Park, a 227-acre park and recreational area of rare beauty and pleasant surprises. Five years ago this tract held field crops and the only activity there at that time was the planting, cultivating and harvesting of crops. Today, hundreds of people daily enjoy varied activities, picnicking, boating, golfing, tennis and numerous recreational activities provided for their pleasure in a setting so beautiful as to seem almost unreal.

The extensive lawn-covered grounds are landscaped throughout with great palms and hundreds of other shade trees, the latter just coming into full beauty.

There are many decorative shrubs and numerous flowers that bloom throughout the year. Towering palms were transplanted to the site, advancing development that in its normal stages, would have been a slow and painstaking process.

The park was appropriately named Encanto which is a Spanish word meaning enchantment and charm. Even in its infancy, its full development and added beauty can be enthusiastically envisioned.

A boating lagoon, over two miles long, an innova-tion in a desert country, wends its way in and about the spacious grounds and golf course for which it pro-vides interesting hazards. Augmenting the loveliness of the artificial lagoon are its flower rimmed shores and scores of wild ducks that have made their home here on two islands provid-Each year the flock in-creases, apparently com-pletely satisfied with the surroundings and reluctant to leave. Several graceful swans and other waterfowl skim over the placid waters, unmindful of passing wa-tercraft or the presence of people. The lagoon is stocked with several kinds of fish, including bass, crappie and perch. Fishing here is reserved for children un-der sixteen years of age exclusively for which no license is necessary. Happy young nimrods are seen lining the banks of the fishing areas, trying their skill with rod and reel.

Boating is one of the leading pastimes at the Encanto lagoon. The many motorboats and canoes, available at the boathouse, provide interesting jaunts through the extensive area, under foot bridges, and through vistas of scenic splendor. Especially entrancing is boating in the moonlight, which adds an ether-ial aspect to the scene.

Encanto's eighteen-hole golf course, considered by many as one of the nation's finest, flanks the north, east and west sides of the park. The fine velvet grass and sleek fairways add pleasurable interest and the hazards are difficult enough to require better than average shooting to negotiate the more than six thousand yard course with a satisfying score.

By Joseph Miller

The fashionable club-house, a two-story structure of Spanish design at the Fifteenth Avenue entrance, with its lawn porches is very striking and in addition to its many purposes, serves as a public dining room. The boathouse, just south of the clubhouse, is usually the scene of great activity as the point of arrival and depart-ure of the watercraft.

The playground area includes facilities and equip-ment for many games.

Outdoor concerts are occasionally held at the band shell where the lawn is sloped in circular terraces.

Encanto Park is one of the latest additions to the city's million dollar park, playground and recreation expansion program. Within the past few years the park system was expanded to include approximately 320 acres of park area within the city limits, augmenting the 14,000 acre Phoenix Mountain Park in the adjacent south mountains, which incidentally, is the largest municipal park in the world; and a 4,000 acre summer recreation area in Horsethief Basin, 90 miles distant in the Bradshaw mountains. Due to favorable climatic conditions, Phoenix has a year-round outdoor program of recreational activities for both juvenile and adults.