Join me on Wed. May 20th at 10 am for an hour or so of walking through Westmoreland Park to make this a cleaner park than when we arrived. This also gives you a cito on Wed, if you're looking to qualify for Westside VIII Oregon CITO Week Challenge in Bend.
The posted coordinates are for a picnic area near the playground. We'll meet there to sign paperwork before we begin picking up litter and again at the end of the event for trash disposal. There may be limited on-street parking across the street but it's mainly residential parking. Parking coordinates for the Westmoreland Park parking lot have been provided below.
Bring your gloves and grabbers, grab a supplied garbage bag, and we'll pick up any trash we find. Weather is unpredictable at this time of year so dress appropriately and stay safe.
In 1936, the City of Portland purchased the 45 acre parcel for the devolpment of West Moreland Recreation Park. It was supposed to include from north to south: park office and restroom building, outdoor handball courts, a roller-skating rink, basketball courts, twelve tennis courts, two children’s play areas, two picnic parks, a model yacht lagoon, bowling greens, a horseshoe pitching area, a fly-casting pond with nearby dry-casting area and fly-caster’s club house, four baseball diamonds, two football fields, a lacrosse field, a soccer field, various portable bleachers, and dressing rooms. Both the lagoon and pond were also intended as ice-skating rinks during the colder winter months.
The City of Portland partnered with the federal WPA (Works Progress Administration) to not only help with the parks construction but give an important opportunity to employ laborers just after the Great Depression. The fly-casting pond, specifically, was hand excavated, and was one of the first features completed at the park. By August 1936, the pond was home to the 28th Annual International Casting competition.
However, in June of 1937, the park project was closed due to lack of funds. It started back up in July of 1939 though with some modifications to the original design. The casting pond floor was concreted, the ball fields graded and bridges built over Crystal Springs Creek. A local druggist, Nick Sckavone advocated for an adult baseball stadium, which was constructed in 1942 and renamed Sckavone Field (now Sckavone Stadium) in 1955.
In 1945 the lawn bowling facilities were built; the grass surface is also used for croquet and the gravel area is for petanque (similar to bocce ball). A restroom and picnic shelter was built in 1949. In 1952, the lagoon was reformed into a wading pool, which in later years with the persistent presence of waterfowl has become known as the duck pond.
The new playground we'll be meeting by was built in 2014 and they have plans to put in a skate park where the tennis courts currently are and move the tennis courts west of Sckovone Stadium.
"This cache complies with the geocaching policies for Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) properties. Please respect park hours when geocaching."