Cedar Valley 50: Concrete elephant a fixture at Waterloo park
By Tim Jamison, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The sculpted concrete pachyderm still stands near the river's edge among the park's disc golf course, delighting young children and reminding the city's older denizen of a time when such hand-crafted features were fixtures of the local park system.
Conceived by landscape architect
Now it's the last reminder of
Crusoe's Island, started in 1959, included a playground full of unique handmade features, including tree houses, a cave, cooking pot and even a sound system that played bird sounds, native drums and Tarzan's yell.
Similar equipment popped up in "
Most of the theme park equipment has disappeared as it became too costly to maintain during the city's economic downturn in the late 1980s. Insurance liability concerns led city leaders to focus on manufactured play structures instead of the concrete and wooden features of the past.
Leisure Services Director
Katoski died in 1995. Munn, who sculpted the elephant, died in 1996.
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