The Place:
The centrepiece of the park is the group of baseball diamonds. Situated at the apex of the four diamonds is what may be to some the most important structure in the park,
The Concession Building. Named the Carl "Tubby" Lundstrom Memorial Building in honour of Carl Lundstrom, this building is the place where everyone who attends the park's goings on refuels after a strenuous game.
Given the facilities available here, the city of Libby holds its annual
Libby Logger Days at the park.
Logger Days is an education based series of summer days where the local community showcases its forest stewardship heritage. Started over 60 years ago, it long been used to educate the local population about forest management, forest management machinery and techniques and forest management cultural norms. The 58th Annual Libby Logger Days was held June 23rd to 26th, 2016.
J. Neils Memorial Park is also host to Libby's other major summer event, the
Kootenai River Rodeo, held annually near the end of July.
J. Neils Memorial Park was named in honor of entrepreneur and lumber king Julius Neils, born in Pomerania, Germany. Neils came to Montana in the early twentieth century, buying the Dawson Lumber Company, with mills in Libby, in 1911, as well as about ten thousand acres of timberlands in surrounding areas. Operations continued at Libby until the closing of the Libby Mill in 2002.
The Person:
Tubby obviously made an impression on the citizens of Libby. It's a safe bet that he was heavily involved in sports and recreation in the community in some capacity. Unfortunately, he seems not to have made an impression on the news media. All that we know of Tubby is that he died in 2006 in Libby at the age of 79. Tubby's obituary was printed in The Missoulian on November 25th, 2006.