By Les Smith, Park Board (August 24th, 1999, Red Oak Express)
To inform the public of the various parks the city of Red Oak has around the community, this will be the first in a series of articles about your parks. This week’s park spotlight is Wilson Park.
With nine acres, Wilson Park is the second largest recreation area in Red Oak. Located at the end of Birchwood Dr. just off Eastern Ave, the land was acquired by the city from Charles and Norma Wilson in 1977. This park offers shady picnic areas for cookouts with family and friends. It has spacious open areas for running, throwing Frisbees, playing catch or just enjoying nature.
Recent improvements to Wilson Park include a new walk-in entrance from Birchwood Dr., expanding parking area which will be blacktopped as part of a city street project and a one quarter mile circular sidewalk. Mr. Wilson donated the concrete to build not only the sidewalk, but the paving of the walkway into the park, the passage into the picnic area and two areas along the sidewalk for concrete benches. So those of you who like to take a walk in the park, you now have a sidewalk to use to get your exercise while enjoying the splendor of nature.
Another improvement planned for the park (although not yet finalized) is the installation of playground equipment. Children can entertain themselves on the equipment by showing off to Mom or see how high they can climb, play hide and seek, or use their imaginations and turn the equipment into a fort and do battle with the evil Darth Maul. Afterwards parent and child could stroll around the park hand-in-hand reliving the adventure. Creating family-friendly parks is the ultimate goal the park board is trying to achieve.
The members of the park board Kyle Cross, Ron Anderson, Dan Larson, Teresa Euken and myself, Les Smith, encourage one and all to take the opportunity to visit Wilson Park as well as the other parks Red Oak has to offer. They are yours to enjoy.