Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
This month is a big anniversary of sorts—it includes the 50,000th day of existence for Forest Park, which opened in 1876. That’s 137 years of museums, sports, wildlife, a World’s Fair, an Olympics, and weird objects discovered in the woods. Bill Reininger, park operations manager for Forest Park Forever (forestparkforever.org), keeps it all in perspective.
• I oversee the land management division of Forest Park Forever. We’ve got 14 staff who work out in the park—horticulturists, gardeners, folks who specialize in ecological restoration. I’m also in charge of overseeing the Visitor and Education Center. I work with other staff on capital projects. I also coordinate maintenance efforts with the city’s staff.
• We have a maintenance agreement with the city that lays out what they’re responsible for and what we’re responsible for. That’s an arrangement that’s becoming more common, these sorts of public-private partnerships, as funding becomes tighter.
• The 1904 World’s Fair completely shaped how the park looks, because a lot of areas were clear-cut or the topography was changed. That’s when the River des Peres was put underground. There are still two structures, the Art Museum and the flight cage at the Zoo, left over from the fair. A lot of other buildings were made out of plaster of Paris because they were temporary.
• The Forest Park Master Plan was finished in ’95; then we started raising money. ’97 and ’98 was the big push, and by around ’04, for the 100th anniversary of the World’s Fair, most of the projects were done. The playgrounds were done in ’05, Government Hill was renovated in ’07, and we completed the Dual Path project two years ago.
• So many municipalities across the U.S. are experiencing budgetary constraints, and infrastructure is one of those things that goes. I had the pleasure of working for the city’s forestry division from ’98 to ’01, and I saw the condition of the park. The paths weren’t there. Things were crumbling. People didn’t visit it as much. Now there’s a sense of security. You’re not worried about tripping over holes in the concrete. The aesthetics are there. The landscape is very welcoming. The rangers patrol for safety. The more appealing it is, the more people who are there, the less crime you have. That sense of safety begets safety itself.
• One of my favorite seasons in the park is the spring. There are thousands of bulbs in the park, tons of ornamental trees and shrubs that bloom. It’s such an impact; the environment is awesome.
• There are a couple of little hidden natural areas in the park. The prairie with a boardwalk and water feature over by Steinberg is one of my favorites aesthetically, and I proposed to my wife over in that area. It’s hard to believe you’re just a couple hundred feet from Kingshighway and the hospital.
• Yes, I have hugged a tree.
• It’s OK for people to get romantic in the park, as long as they’re not breaking any rules about lewd behavior. So many people come there because of the romantic setting, the sunsets, the concerts. A lot of people may cuddle on blankets, but they can’t get lewd. Any park in any city, even golf courses, have been prone to those types of activities.
• I used to run a lot in the park, but now my knees don’t allow me to do that. I like to hike and go to the playgrounds and look for critters in the park with my family.
• As far as unusual animals go, the park has a bald eagle that has been coming back every winter. We actually have mink in the park. We’ve had quail, coyotes, turkeys—if you build it, they will come.
• The Forest Park catchphrase is “Keep on the grass.”
• The unusual birds in the park include some barn owls. We’ve had a mating pair in the park for the last six or seven years. The bluebird boxes are pulling in some birds, and we have three purple martin houses, which are full. That’s really cool to beef up that population. The waterfowl like egrets and herons are very majestic and cool.
• On a spring cleanup day years ago, we found a front wheel and tie rod from a car in Kennedy Woods. I’m really not sure how that broke off and got in there.
• The more unusual sports you see at the park include some off-road races. There’s rugby, pickup Frisbee, the yo-yo guy who performs near the Art Museum. One of the unique ones is the jogging juggler. He jogs, and while he jogs he juggles three bowling pins. We have hired him to work some of our events. He walks on stilts and plays the harmonica, too.
• If parts of the giant Ferris wheel from the World’s Fair are buried in the park, nobody has found them. The axle is supposedly buried somewhere in the park, but it hasn’t been uncovered during the renovations.
• Some of the capital projects that we have for our next round are infrastructure things like the streets around the Zoo, the sidewalks around Wells and Government drives, redoing the upper Muny lot, and looking at sustainable options, like newer technology to make aesthetics and the environment pleasing. We’re looking at renovating some of the waterways, and putting more amenities around the Central Fields.
• In 25 years, I would hope that the master plan has been fully implemented, all the infrastructure projects are up to speed, all the trees that were planted during the $100 million campaign are maturing, and that the park continues to be an oasis for the community to reflect and meet people in a great melting pot.
• The park transforms people’s minds for the rest of the day after they visit. It puts them in a better mood, and then they interact with other people, which puts the whole city in a better, more positive state of mind. That’s a pretty cool thought.
