"The ghost park"

It sits a half mile north of Green, KS (pop. 147) and it is abandoned. But why?
I had driven past it many times over the years but on this late morning of Winter-Spring I finally stopped to explore.
It is a large park of a few acres with a dry creek running thru it and some nice shade trees. The entrance is large and grand...

the plaque says it was built by the WPA in 1938. This was Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration where the federal government became a big employer and hired workers to do a large number of services throughout the USA.
There really isn't much to see here....it is what it is....a vacant city park. But it remains a mystery to me.
I could see a stage or ampitheater near the trees--

As I walked around, I tried to get a feel for the place. I imagined it with families enjoying picnics, playing horseshoes, tennis, or maybe there was a skating rink area for winter use, or maybe young lovers would park there at night staring at the stars above while holding hands....

Then I saw a bridge big enough for cars to drive across...

and then one for pedestrian use only and it was a beauty if you like stone work like me...

Upon leaving the park I walked out the other side where the driveway exits....

and I admired the dry and dead native Kansas Bluestem prairie grass that bordered the park on the north side. It is a pleasure to behold in it's own right as this is how our state once looked from border to border with no trees. Just grass and wind with creeks and rivers and herds of buffalo that did roam.....

Sadly it was time to get back on the road less traveled---a county blacktop that was to take me some 20 miles north that day before I left it for yet another road.

I had time to reflect on the "ghost park" the rest of the afternoon. Why did it become abandoned? Was it too expensive to mow and keep up? Did everyone move away leaving too few people behind to care? Was it doomed to fail right from the start because of it's poor location?

Did the government build these proud Kansans something they did not need or want?

I still want to know.

But for now, I will keep on wondering what was and what will be......

Thanks for riding along.