Beside the curling rink on 11th Avenue, the little park has been continuously upgraded and updated over the years, with the most recent addition being a 2,000 square foot kids' splash park adjacent to the playground, a joint project of the town and the Government of Alberta, with further financial aid from various sponsors. The playground itself is well equipped, with the usual complement of slides, swings and climbing things.
Surrounding the playground is a large grassed area with many picnic tables and benches. The entire park is surrounded by a chain link fence.
Carstairs happens to be the little town in which the writer grew up. Though this little park wasn't really developed in his day he played many a baseball game in the larger park to the south, played hockey and skated in the nearby Memorial Arena and curled in the adjacent curling rink. The curling rink has been replaced by a newer and larger one, while the skating rink has been demolished and replaced by a much bigger arena on the east edge of town.
Below is a photo of the last of seven (I believe there were eight in earlier years) grain elevators which constituted
Elevator Row along the CPR tracks in Carstairs. I happened to be visiting the old home town on the second and final day on which they were tearing it down, October 13th, 2004. A friend and I, along with most of the rest of the town, stood for hours watching our last
Prairie Sentinel being chewed away by excavators until the last of it, the central structure, toppled over and crashed to the ground. It was a sad day indeed...
The nearby Knox Presbyterian Church, an Alberta Heritage Resource, the first church in Carstairs, was built in 1901. It now is home to the
Roulston Museum, AKA the Carstairs Heritage Centre . The dedicated bench included in this Lucky 7 is dedicated to Bill Bishop, my Little League coach one year. It stands in front of the Seniors' Centre on Osler Street. The Freestanding Arch is at the Carstairs Cemetery on the west edge of town, where many of my family now rest, back to great grand parents and great great aunts and uncles.