March 24, 1921. 



The Florists^ Review ' 



19 



PUTTING OVER A PARK 



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THE VILLAGE BEAUTIFUL. 



A Case 6f Determination. 



This is the true story of something 

 that couldn't be done; that is, just 

 about everybody said it couldn't. Not 

 only did men say it, but experience 

 seemed to prove it. 



Happily for us all, there are certain 

 men of vision and indomitable courage 

 who are ever doing the things that 

 "couldn't be done." 



When Conrad B. Wolf talked of 

 beautifying the streets of Hibbing, 

 Minn., by planting shade trees, he was 

 looked upon ae a dreamer. When he 

 talked of a city park with trees, flower- 

 ing shrubs, blooming flowers and rest- 

 ful green grass, they rather thought a 

 commission should be appointed to ex- 

 amine his head. 



What! Make trees grow and flowers 

 live and bloom on this lean soil and 

 in this rigorous climate? Why, the man 

 is a fool! Still, he kept right on fooling 

 that same fool way. As a result, Hib- 

 bing eventually had its joy spot in the 

 center of the village, a spot of content- 

 ment and inspiration to its 16,000 in- 

 habitants. 



If you have been trying to promote 

 the floricultural aspect of your town 

 and think you have a hard time "get- 

 ting things," as you call improvements, 

 road the rest of this tale of Wolf and 

 tlio Hibbing parks. 



Richest Village in World. 



At Hibbing twenty years ago, when 

 the land was stripped of its timber, 

 iron ore was discovered. There were 

 iron ore deposits that in richness and 

 quantity surpassed all the fairy and 

 pirate tales of discovered treasure. 



The Pushing Park Superintendent. 



Here was ore, hundreds of feet deep, 

 that could be shoveled out as you would 

 a sand pit — a billion tons at least of 

 high-grade ore right on the banks of 

 Lake Superior, where it could be 

 shipped at low cost. 



The town itself stood with both feet 

 on top of the richest of the riches. All 

 buildings were on leased lands. What 

 use then to spend money on parks and 

 shade trees, when any day the town 

 itself might be ordered off, to satisfy 

 the hunger for ore of the army of huge 

 steam shovels? 



To talk of spending the public's 

 money that way just made people boil 

 over. 



Still the ' ' big little giant " or " fight- 

 ing mayor," as the villagers are fond 

 of calling their progressive executive, 

 Victor L. Power (by the way, Mr. Power 

 was recently reelected mayor to succeed 

 himself for the ninth time), and the 

 park commissioners kept hammering 

 away until finally a small acreage was 

 granted them in the center of the vil- 

 lage. 



Astute Start. 



Their first move was an astute one 

 of self-convincemcnt. They started in 

 as soon as possible by "Saying It with 

 Flowers." A cheap greenhouse of 

 temporary construction was put up at 

 a cost of less than $5,000. In it, thou- 

 sands of bedding plants were grown, 

 which in their ultimate beauty made 

 the strongest kind of convincing ap- 

 peal to the public. 



Trial grounds were established, where 

 perennials, shrubs and trees were given 

 2-year and 3-year tests to find out if 

 they had the backbone to stand that 

 climate and thrive in that lean soil. 



Soon the results of this began to 

 show. Things not only lived; they 

 grew most convincingly. It began to 

 look as if somebody knew what he was 

 talking about. It was then not so difii- 

 cult to get the tax-payers to "loosen 

 up" for two more greenhouses of better 

 design and construction. 



Moving Day. 



Through all the long, weary months 

 of that northern winter, these flower- 

 tilled houses gave cheer and happiness 

 to all who would but turn the knob. 

 "Saying It with Flowers" again did 

 its good work. 



It did it so well that when the ore land 

 owners gave notice that the village 

 and its parks mu.st "move on," among 

 the first things done was to select a 

 new park site and immediately start 

 developing it. 



Then it was that the project for an 

 extensive ornamental range of green- 

 houses of permanent construction found 

 almost immediate favor. 



From their first expenditure of less 

 than $5,000, they increased to many 

 times this amount, and now have an 

 ornamental palm house and wings, with 

 three practical purpose houses back of 

 them, joined to a fine service building 

 by two lean-to houses. These are in 

 the new park, two miles from the first 

 one. It is a Lord & Burnham iron- 



frame range such as serves parks in 

 large cities. 



Think what all this means. It 

 means that a village of 16,000, of whom 

 seventy-five per cent are miners, had in 

 a few short years turned from antag- 

 onism to the park idea to one of de- 

 manding that their parks and streets 

 shall both be beautiful. They de- 

 manded larger greenhouses, where 

 flower shows, real flower shows, could 

 be going on all the winter through. 



And so a new park was started two 

 miles away, and the village is soon to 

 follow its move, body, boots and bag- 

 gage. In a short time the old city site 

 will be but a vast pit, hundreds of feet 

 deep. But, regardless of how deep the 

 pit or how valuable the ore taken from 

 it. Ribbing's park still exists. In the 

 loss of the first one they gained another, 

 larger and better in every way. 



Sentiment Succeeds. 



But, best of all, they have developed 

 in the hearts of those thousands that 

 latent love of flowers and growing 

 things which is in all of us, whether 

 miners or milliners. Hibbing 's tax- 

 payers think that they only granted 

 permission to have a park and build 

 greenhouses, a bandstand, a rest house 

 and a swan lakelet, but that is only the 

 frame of the picture. 



The picture itself is the full measure 

 of joy it has given to so many, the 

 planting and blooming within them of 

 the love of the beautiful, a love that is 

 an exhaustless source of contentment. 



All of which may verge on pure senti- 

 ment, but, happily for the progress of 

 the world, more and more thinking 

 folks are realizing that all things 



TheiFighting Mayor of Hibbing. 



