89 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
Avondale from Twenty-seventh to 
Twenty-eighth on Webster will be im- 
proved as soon as the property owners 
pave the street. 
When the various improvements 
planned are accomplished there will be 
a park system comprising 613 acres 
representing an outlay of $955,000. 
In discussing the needs of the park 
system in a recent local communica- 
tion, Commissioner Cornish says: 
“All of our parks to date are upon 
high, rough land. There is no park 
that contains enough level ground for 
a suitable baseball ground. This simi- 
larity is objectionable. The project 
to acquire the grounds surrounding 
Cut-Off lake as a park would remove 
this criticism of our park system. The 
advantages of this proposed park are 
set forth in the report of the board of 
park commissioners for 1906 as fol- 
lows: 
“ ‘Cut-Off lake is the only large 
body of water in the state of Ne- 
braska. Its supply of water comes 
exclusively from springs connected 
with the Missouri river. No sewer- 
age or surface water can enter the 
lake. There is a constant flow of its 
waters, keeping them ever pure and 
sweet. It furnishes an opportunity 
for fishing, skating, boating, bathing, 
speeding, ball games, etc., not else- 
where possible in the city. It would 
result in improvements in the Misso- 
ri river banks near Florence that 
would render impossible the overflow- 
ing of the low grounds, and prevent 
the river again changing its course, 
to the destruction of valuable lands 
now lying in the state of Nebraska 
and used for manufacturing, ware- 
house and other business purposes. 
The silt that now covers the bottom 
of the lake could be dredged and 
pumped upon the adjoining land, rais- 
ing its grade above high water mark 
of the Missouri river. The land cre- 
ated in this manner would be of far 
greater value than the cost of the 
work. When this is done the lake 
itself would have a sand bottom, and 
became a clear, beautiful body of 
water.’ ” 
J. Y. Craig, superintendent of For- 
est Lawn Cemetery, is president of 
the park board and E. R. Adams, su- 
perintendent. 
A HILLSIDE DRIVE IN BEMIS PARK, OMAHA. 
VIEW IN KOUNTZE PARK, OMAHA, NEB. 
drive for autos and other pleasure 
vehicles and many are anxiously 
awaiting the completion of the boule- 
vard system. 
Jefferson Square will be kept well 
cleaned and planted with flowers this 
summer. It is of great usefulness as 
a small park in the busy center of the 
city. 
Himebaugh Park is only a trifle over 
an acre and is not yet improved, being 
to far from the car lines and difficult 
of access, with but few residents near 
it. It lies three miles west of the 
postoffice. 
Kountze Park is on the site of the 
old Exposition grounds at Pinkney 
and Twentieth streets. There are ten 
or twelve acres in the park and but 
little to show for the Exposition ex- 
cept a couple of bridges, an artesian 
well and a boulevard from the city. 
The park board will also make ef- 
forts to improve the street parkings 
and to plant trees and shrubbery and 
flower beds wherever possible. They 
will encourage the placing of statues 
in these parkings. The Associated 
German societies of Omaha have pre- 
sented the city with a bronze statue 
of Schiller, which will be placed in 
Riverview Park near the famous lin- 
den tree planted by the society a year 
or so ago. 
Other statues will be placed in the 
street parkings, of which there are as 
yet only two or three. There is a pretty 
parking on Capitol avenue and Seven- 
teenth street, 740 feet long and 32 feet 
wide. Another is on Lafayette and 
Thirty-fourth streets. The parking on 
