E.L. Johnson Pool Park - Plains, MT
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 47° 27.405 W 114° 53.129
11T E 659379 N 5258090
This is the largest park in Plains, and one of only three that we found in the town.
Waymark Code: WM10MV9
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 05/29/2019
Views: 1
The swimming pool is the centerpiece of E.L. Johnson Pool Park on Oak Street, which occupies a full city block between Willis and Boyer Streets. Other facilities include tennis courts, skateboard park, playground, wading pool and a basketball court. There are many memorials to past citizens in the park, most notably the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool, as well as the James Russell Foust Memorial Tennis Courts and the Gertrude Vacura Bryce Memorial Skateboard Park.
The pool, the first fixture in the present park, was built in the late 1970s to provide a safe place to swim after three local boys died while swimming in the Clark Fork River.
In 2011 the pool faced a crisis when facing closure due to lack of funds for a new sand filter. After failing to win funds in the "We Hear You America" contest sponsored by Readers Digest, they managed to raise over $70,000 (must have been some fancy sand filter) through private and commercial donations and the pool remained open, even receiving a new coat of paint that year.
