Home to the
Plains Piranhas Swim Team, this is a six lane, 25 metre outdoor pool. It was built, mostly through charitable donations, over 30 years ago, in the early 1980s, after three local boys drowned 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.
The pool is the centerpiece of the E.L. Johnson Pool Park on Oak Street, occupying a full city block between Willis and Boyer Streets. Other facilities include tennis courts, skateboard park, playground, wading pool and a basketball court.