BLOG #3

For Blog #3 I am going to focus on the use of the land of Wash Park before it was Wash Park. The first use of the land was from 1860-1867 through the construction of the Big Ditch, which was an irrigation system for the city. It diverted water for agricultural, mechanical, mining, and city purposes. The ditch is still in use today, but has been moved underground. The use of the water for city purposes shows the human need for control of the river and shows the imbalance humans had with nature then. The next use was from 1886 to 1889 for the creation of "South Denver," a neighborhood designed to counteract the effects of alcohol in the area. A street cart was built to run through the new neighborhood, along with almost 100 homes. At that point, the humans ruined the beautiful nature to create houses to counteract their own errors of alcohol. The next project with the land was the creation of the park itself. In 1897, the city acquired the park and hired architect Reinchert Schuetz. He designed the landscape and even ordered the construction of the second lake in 1906 to enhance the landscape. The people at that point weren't content with the land and environment itself and had to destroy the original land further to make it more appealing to them. In 1911, the boathouse was built, which allowed people to swim, housed boats, and served as a gathering place, allowing the city to make money off the land. The area around the park continued to develop, and more houses were built, taking away more land. The history of the land also holds some civil tensions. The beach showed the large racial divide in the area, along with the economic divide. In the 1970s, during the hippie period and protests, police marched through with tear gas and the park had to be evacuated. In the 1980s, preservation efforts started and the Progress and Preservation Together group was founded.