Of Parks and Playgrounds

PHOENIX is a beautiful city, with flowers blooming in profusion throughout the year, summer and winter lawns of perennial green, great palm trees, orange and grapefruit trees and shade trees of innumerable varieties, and attractively landscaped homes, schools, public buildings and parks and playgrounds. The Phoenix parks and playgrounds system, perhaps one of the most extensive and surely one of the finest in the nation for a city of its size, has been developed on a far reaching plan, with beauty, comfort and pleasure for the delight of its citizens and visitors of the present, and with an eye on the future expansion of thecity, which, if it continues at the present rapid pace, will indeed reflect the foresight and wisdom of those responsible for acquiring and de veloping the many major areas and neighbor hood sites now a part of the Phoenix Parks, Playgrounds and Recreation system. Phoenix can give thanks for the great part played in the planning and developing of its park system, and will indeed sorely miss the guiding hand of William G. Hartranft, known as the father of the Phoenix park system, whose passing was announced as this article was being prepared. The parks however, will stand as a living monument to his untiring efforts to make Phoenix one of the beauty spots of the nation. Aside from possessing the largest municipal park in the world, the 15,000-acre Phoenix South Mountain Park, and also a leased resort area, Horsethief Basin, high in the pine-clad Bradshaw Mountains, about ninety miles to the north and west of the city, Phoenix has created within her bounds, beautiful Encanto Park, a 227-acre park and recreation area of unsur passed beauty with extensive lawn-covered landscaped grounds, an 18-hole golf course, a two and one-half mile boating lagoon, and various other innovations for the pleasure and comfort of its populace and the great numberof visitors who express amazement that here, “in the middle of the desert Southwest” is an oasis a city beautiful, and with a park of such enchantment such as Encanto.

REACHING PLAN FOR THE DELIGHT OF ITS CITIZENS AND THE PLEASURE OF ITS VISITORS

Ten years ago the area now enveloping Encanto Park held field crops. Today, the transformation presents a near miracle as photographs throughout the pages of this issue will divulge. Giant palm trees, that would take many years of care and attention were they planted from seedlings, were transplanted to the park area in their full growth and glory. The lagoon course was cut out of the flat uninteresting contour and the excavated soil was used to create hills and knolls and golf-course greens, lending an interesting broken terrain to the park. Then grass seed was sown, flower beds planted, shrubs and trees placed in theirrespective show places, the lagoon filled with pumped water and stocked with ducks and swans, immense water lily beds were set out, picnic and playground equipment constructed as well as several rest stations, a clubhouse, boat house and parking area, the entire unit was groomed and developed and within an amazingly short time, the present park of great beauty was created for the pleasure and enjoyment of all the people.

The playground facilities at Encanto Park include a battery of tennis courts, and courts for basketball, croquet, shuffle board, horse shoe and various other pastimes. An interesting feature of the park is the fishing reserved for children under sixteen. The lagoon is kept well stocked with bass, crappie and perch, and there is no lack of enthusiasm among the younger set who line the banks of the lagoon's vantage points almost every day throughout the year.

The Encanto Park band shell is becoming increasingly important as a setting for concerts featuring artists of national fame as well as concerts by military bands from nearby air fields and camps. A new innovation has been successfully inaugurated this summer concerts under the stars, under the direction of Mrs. Archer E. Linde. The first concert featured two nationally known pianists in cooperation with the Phoenix Lion's Club, for the benefit of the blind. Over 2,000 persons filled to capacity the grass-covered, semi-circular terraced theater. Due to the great success of this first venture, additional concerts are now being planned. On Sunday evening, public church services are held at the shell during the summer season.

Encanto Park is located in the northwestern section of the city with clubhouse headquarters at Encanto Drive and North 15th Avenue. The park is served by city bus transportation.

Phoenix South Mountain Park is the largest municipal park in the world today. Twenty-three and one half square miles of mountainous and desert wilderness for a city park might seem a bit far-fetched to one not familiar with the nature of the region with its many miles of improved trails, consisting of a twenty-mile system of developed roads and a forty-mile system of foot and saddle trails penetrating the most inner recesses of this cactus studded playground. From its summit, a spectacular view of Phoenix and the Valley may be had, the city skyline, tall buildings in the business district, stand out like huge toy blocks piled in a clearing of a forest city. The great expanse of trees almost obscures the residential sections from view. Stretching from the base of the mountains and reaching almost to the edge of the city's outskirts, the areas of citrus groves, grain fields, some green, some golden, appearas perfect squares of many acres, paralleling in symmetrical patterns.

EQUIPPED WITH GOLF COURSE, TWO AND ONE-HALF MILES OF BOATING LAGOON AND BEAUTY EVERYWHERE

There are separate, improved picnic areas in the park with many individual party nooks, each partitioned from the other by natural barriers in the mountainsides, and each individual out-doors room equipped with tables of natural rock, fireplace and benches. There are also community picnic areas to accommodate large groups. Phoenix South Mountain Park, visited by 250,000 persons in 1941, is sevenand one half miles south from the heart of the city, and for the nature lover, as well as those who wish to get away from the city without hardly leaving it, this natural mountain-desert playground offers a completely delightful experience.

In Phoenix South Mountain Park, over 340 individual plant species have been identified. Most of the cactus species found in Arizona may also be found here. This area is the site of unusual plant life due to the great amount of sunSunshine and the low average of annual rainfall. The climate in the Phoenix area offers 84 per cent of the year's possible sunshine, and the annual rainfall averages less than seven inches.

In this park are found areas of rock covered with ancient Indian pictographs, strange writings and pictures, characters and markings, carved or chipped into the stone surfaces, inscriptions that to this day, have defied attempts at definite translation. At another place in the park, in a niche high on the side of the canyon is the famous "Fr. Marcos de Niza" inscription, the object of much controversy. Supposedly inscribed in 1539, indicating the route of this early Spanish explorer, in his search for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola.

Phoenix has several neighborhood parks and playgrounds, four of them having swimming pools, University Park, Coronado Park, Erstlake Park, and Grant Park. University Park has an A. A. U. approved pool where state championship and Far-Western championship swimming events are often held. Aside from the several municipal parks, there are also two private recreation parks, both with swimming pools, one is Riverside Park, south of the city, and Joyland Park, east of the city.

At most of these parks there are picnic areas with groves of shade trees. Picnic tables and benches are available and swings and other playground equipment on the sites. These facilities are free to the public.

Papago State Park, just outside the eastern city limit, is a vast area of red bluffs, cactus, and other interesting attractions. Formerly designated as a national monument and later rescinded as such, perhaps due to the fact the area was of such nature that protection wasn't considered necessary, this area of picnic grounds and riding trails is one of rare beauty. One of the most important points of interest here is the Desert Botanical Garden, where thousands of species of cactus are growing, many having been brought from other parts of the world. An administration building and library is located in the central portion of the gardens.

Phoenix park officials, feeling that the city should have a retreat of its own for its citizens during the summertime, selected and leased an area in the pine-clad Bradshaws, near Prescott, at an elevation of 6,000 feet, almost 5,000 feet higher than the city itself. A cool, high, restful retreat from the city and the summer heat, Horsethief Basin is a beautiful and secluded spot, offering fishing, riding, tennis and other forms of mountain recreation and is reached over the Black Canyon Highway, State Highway 69, which branches off from Grand Avenue, northwest of Phoenix, at Camelback Road.