MOORE: On a bright and slightly chilly Monday morning, a crowd gathers in an empty patch of grass just off Dean Solomon Road in west Fayetteville. Fourteen shovels are dug into a pile of dirt behind a podium, awaiting the official groundbreaking of Fayetteville's newest community park — Underwood Park.
Fayetteville Mayor Molly Rahn says back in 2019, approximately 38 acres of land were donated to the city by the Underwood family.
RAHN: Then another 27 acres are available for use through a no-cost lease also given by the family. And that is such a gift to our community.
MOORE: The land was once the site of a never-quite-opened seminary called Far West Seminary. The site eventually became home to Ozark Institute, a school for boys, from 1848 until 1872. For many years the area was the Razorback Golf Course, and in 2017 Craig and Laura Underwood bought the land.
Underwood Park will be built in phases. The mayor says phase one will include, among other things, ziplines.
RAHN: When I first read that, I had to make sure they weren't teasing me because that sounds so fun and exciting. Other features include a tree deck, log balance bars, and a giant woven nest. Additional elements in phase one will include pickleball courts, a basketball court, pavilions, a restroom building, and of course, parking.
MOORE: Future amenities in phase two will include disc golf, a dog park, and water recreation activities like kayaking and paddleboarding.
Ted Jack, the city's park planning superintendent, says he's been visiting this site for about five years with Craig Underwood, the landowner.
JACK: I was just like, “Wow, this is such a fantastic place.” There's so many different kinds of microenvironments. There were birds everywhere. We were seeing all kinds of things.
Then there was other history. There's great natural history. But one of the things we noticed up on the top, Craig showed me, was this old spring house, and it was part of that old college seminary that the mayor was talking to you about.
Some of the historians say that if we hadn't had that, we may not have ended up with the U of A here in Arkansas. It was part of what we kind of built our case for to have the U of A, but the spring house is still there. About 181 years ago, a construction project started up on the hill just up here to build that. When we stopped and we were looking at it, the spring's still coming out of the little spring house. I looked down into it, and I was really surprised. There were hundreds of golf balls going down through the stream."
MOORE: Craig Underwood says this site has been a work in progress for years, and it's great to finally see it start to come to fruition.
CRAIG UNDERWOOD: Laura and I had the opportunity to buy the park back in 2017. When we first did that, we went and talked to Mayor Jordan at the time to get some advice. We're not looking at doing anything quick. This is going to be something we were thinking we would hold on to for several years and just getting some ideas.
At that first meeting, we started talking a little bit about a park — doing something, maybe a 20- or 30-acre park — and then slowly that started building. We had the city council members come to us, as well as the Parks Board wanting to see about doing a little bit larger park.
It just slowly started growing and growing. Really, it took a life of its own and went from 20 to 30 acres to, as I mentioned, the 38 now with additional 27, which will make it 65 acres total. We're absolutely elated that this is something that we're able to be a small part of.
MOORE: Craig is quick to brag on his wife, Laura, and her work in the community, both as a volunteer and as a philanthropist with the park.
CRAIG UNDERWOOD: A huge part of the naming is Laura. She was named Volunteer of the Year for the entire state of Arkansas in the Parks Department in 2017. They only nominate one person a year to be the Volunteer of the Year, and the Arkansas Parks Department did that for Laura.
That somewhat shows our dedication. It's not just this one park. We've been involved with the city and Laura with her volunteer work with multiple organizations, from Mount Sequoyah to Yvonne Richardson Center to a variety of different things.
We love Fayetteville, and we love seeing what can be done when people put their heads together.
MOORE: Laura Underwood for you, I mean, you're someone who cares deeply about this city. This just feels like an extension and a manifestation of that in a completely exponential way.
LAURA UNDERWOOD: Matthew, you're going to make me tear up. Craig and I got married 40 years ago. We just celebrated our 40th anniversary, and he moved me to Fayetteville. I was a Texas girl, and I fell in love with Fayetteville. The people, the beauty of it, and did all I could to get involved. I've met so many incredible people.
I love the outdoors. Craig got me into that. But I love the outdoors, I love the flowers and planting because of the Master Gardener program. I'm just so excited about this. We have been waiting for this groundbreaking for so many years, and I just can't speak enough about how wonderful this is.
MOORE: Craig and Laura both say that when their three sons were growing up, they grew fond of Gulley Park in Fayetteville and have lots of memories of their family there.
CRAIG UNDERWOOD: Having that community park, just three or four blocks away, my oldest son- who lives in Waco, drove up for this- but when he was just a little tiny kid, that's where he learned to ride his bike.
Troy and my other son, Brent, used to hunt for crawdads in the creek. There are so many family memories. We did birthday parties down in the park.
Having a green space like that, within easy commuting for that pocket of the city, is priceless. It is something that is just wonderful to have the memories that are created for the families. That was such an important part of our family growing up, that to be able to have a small part of that for this section of town is humbling but so rewarding.
LAURA UNDERWOOD: Craig talked about our kids going to the park. They went to Root elementary school. We'd do things where we walked over to the park and have parties a lot.
I look at all the neighborhoods.This ties so many neighborhoods to this park and to Holcomb Elementary and to the baseball field. Kids can come over here, ride their bikes.
I'm hoping all these kids that live in this neighborhood will ride the trail to their elementary school and then come home and play. Get their hands dirty and just play. I love that.
CRAIG UNDERWOOD: And there’s the outdoor part of it. It thrills both of us. We've both been huge on being outdoors. We love cycling. We love hiking. We love being outside.
I've been fortunate, between being born and raised in this area, to have it so close. But so many people have not had that opportunity. As Laura says, she wasn't that much of an outdoor person until she moved here to Arkansas. To see all the opportunities that are here and to have this, which will eventually be 65 acres.
Immediately to the east of here is 122 acres — Wilson Springs. There's an additional 15 acres of Northwest Arkansas Land Trust property immediately to the west of here. And then from there you have the Gary Hampton softball fields and the green space. There are over 200 acres of non-stop green space, all connected with Underwood Park being the center keystone area of that. It's really exciting.
MOORE: Ted Jack with the city Parks Department says getting to be on the ground floor of a brand new community park in Fayetteville is job fulfillment.
JACK: When we were first looking at the park system early on, we knew this area of the city did not have a community good park. We're like, “oh gosh, are we going to find land to do that?”
Fortunately, the Underwoods made that happen for us. And it's a beautiful site. The first time I got out here to see it, I was just like, “Oh, yeah, this could be a fantastic park.”
What's really nice about it is it's different from any of our other community parks. It adds a whole new experience for people that come to it. We're really looking forward to this one getting done in the next year.
MOORE: When you do work on the other parks you have the infrastructure already there to work with. You have a blank slate here, is that intimidating? Is that exciting? Is it both?
JACK: It's exciting. I always like working on one that's from the start. It's fun renovating them, too. Here you don't have as many constraints. I mean, you still have constraints because the site gives you all kinds of constraints, but it's a kind of empty slate.
Listening to all the different ideas that people come to the table with through the planning process and hearing what people want and what they would like and bouncing ideas off of them. It's a fun process to do that.
MOORE: Underwood Park will be one of just five community parks in the city. Ted has a unique way of describing them.
JACK: Our community parks sometimes tell people it's not like fast food- like a McDonald's- where you don't really need to drive past one McDonald's to see another McDonald's. These are like individual restaurants. One day you might want Thai food. Maybe you want barbecue.
Well, that's what the community parks are like. They're each different. They have different experiences, and they're worth driving around to see. They are located so that you should have a community park close to you. You have your home base, but then you also have these great other places to go visit.
MOORE: He says, weather permitting, they should be ready to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Underwood Park in the next 12 months.
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