THE MAKING OF A PARK 

 SYSTEM IN LA CROSSE. 



No better illustration could be given of the making of a park 

 system by a small city than the recent experience of La Crosse. It 

 should be recalled that three years ago it had not even a park 

 commission, and it is less than two years since the actual work of 

 park construction was begun. Yet it has to-day the substantial 

 framework of a comprehensive park system that is equalled by few 

 cities, if any, of the same size. This achievement is so notable and 

 the steps by which it has been brought about are so little known, 

 even to many of the citizens of La Crosse, that I believe it worth 

 while to review briefly the methods that have been used, to describe 

 the general character of the parks and playgrounds themselves and 

 to draw certain conclusions that seem justified by the first year's 

 work of the La Crosse Park Commission. 



Pettibone Park Was the Beginning. 



The beginning of parks in La Crosse is to be found in Pettibone 

 Park, a naturally beautiful Island in the Mississippi River, directly 

 opposite the business section of the city, but unfortunately situated 

 within the boundaries of the State of Minnesota. Established in 

 1890 as a public pleasure ground, through the generosity of Mr. 

 A. W. Pettibone^ this Island Park at first supplied the demand for 

 public parks and then created an insistent demand for more. 

 Never a city park in a complete sense, it has, nevertheless, always 

 been open to the free use of the people. Its administration is 

 vested in a special park board,* appointed by Mr. Pettibone and. 

 the funds for the acquisition of the land, for construction and for 

 maintenance have been provided by the same generous and public- 

 spirited individual. He has placed in the hands of the aforesaid 

 Park Board the sum of $50,000, the income from which is to be 

 used in the proper maintenance of the park. Pettibone Park 



*The present members are : J. M. Hixon, President; F. P. Hixon, Vice- 

 President; Geo. H. Gordon, Sec'y-J G. W. Burton, Treasurer; E. L. Colman; 

 Mayor John Dengler. 



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