Written by Gary Averill
On November 26, the green pump well at Shingle Creek Park, 51st and North Morgan, met its demise. The pump was chopped off and its pipe filled with cement. The only ones there to see its final moments were the crew sealing the well and a resident (me) who lives next to the park who thought they were fixing it.
I stayed there for a moment in quiet contemplation. It had not worked for years and the Park Board deemed it too expensive to fix, but you could not miss the green paint and its huge handle of the pump. Soon a park crew will finish the work and there will be no sign of this important contributor to the community.
The pump was put in in the late ‘80s. For about 20 years it brough glee to children who got to pump water out of the well. Those who did not want to use the pump could simply push a button to get fresh water. A neighbor said that a house was originally on the lot, and the Park Board bought the house on the lot and replaced it with a park area.
The area has not changed much since then, except the removal of the pump. On the bulletin board is a pamphlet from 1989. The grills are still there, as are the tables. There were other wells like this one in the Northside such as the Webber and Folwell Park pumps, this was the last existing pump.
A crew from the park district will come in and finish the work, and when the crew is done there will be no sign of this important contributor to the community. Probably in the near future it will be time for the three remaining rusting outdoors grills to also face their demise, they too, have outlived their usefulness. (Iron Mountain Forge who put the grills in, now sells children’s park equipment).
Maybe in the future they will be replaced, as was the water fountain on Morgan and 50th , with something new (there were community meetings in 2017 asking for input in updating the park). In the case of a new water fountain, people now can fill up water bottles and dogs have their own fountain. Still, we can not forget about those who came before. I thank the Camden Historical Society for its contributions to this article as well as the neighbors who gave me their stories of the pump.