How the largest municipal pool in the nation kept its identity amid much-needed renovations
By Terry Berkbuegler and Hank Moyers
For nearly 100 years, Garden City, Kan., was home to a pool so big you could water-ski across it. The hand-dug pool was so expansive that, for years, the local zoo’s elephants would lumber across the street after the pool closed for the season to take a dip.
As the largest, free municipal pool in the nation at nearly two acres, the pool has also been a pool for the people. Stories from young and old about making the trek to Garden City every year to visit “The Big Pool” are common throughout the region. People remember watching the wind sail and bathtub races or marveling at the spectacle of giant pachyderms.
In other words, this was a pool with history.
Executing a much-needed renovation after all those years was at once a financial, logistical, and emotional feat, but the results do the legacy of this community asset proud. The pool is now home to some of the most exciting first-in-the-nation installations of municipal aquatic features, and upon opening last year, was the recipient of the Leading Edge award from the World Waterpark Association (WWA)—the only municipal pool in the world to receive a WWA award in 2021.
Importantly, it also remains accessible to the residents of Garden City, where the average median income is $52,000 a year--$4,500 less than Kansas’ average and $9,000 less than the national average.
With more than 300,000 municipal pools across the U.S.—many built 50 to 75 years ago—The Big Pool offers valuable lessons in the power of community engagement and investment in public amenities to promote economic development and equity.