Town Park is the Heart of Clarkdale
By Roger Naylor
Everything you need to know about Clarkdale boils down to one simple fact.
The most significant structure in town isn’t a stately courthouse, a city hall or a magnificent statue but is instead, a gazebo.
The graceful gazebo anchors the Town Park and it is this swath of green space that is the heart and soul of Clarkdale. All celebrations, festivities and parade revolve around the gazebo and park. When music is playing or Santa Claus pays a visit, this is where it happens. When city officials wanted to take a town photo to celebrate 50 years of incorporation in 2007, guess where they told everyone to gather? Correct.
Dogs walk in the park, kids play and couples get married, all right in the middle of town at a park.
Clarkdale was a planned community, one of the first in the nation. And the centrally located park, just under two acres, was part of that original design. A vein of high grade ore was discovered beneath the smelter in Jerome so a new smelter needed to be built. Construction began on the valley floor, not only on a smelter but on an entirely new town.
Clarkdale—named after the owner of United Verde Copper Company, William Clark—was Arizona’s first company town and designed with precision planning and technological advancements far from the norm in the early 1900s. The community of sturdy brick homes in varying architectural styles included modern conveniences such as electricity, sewer and copper water piping.
The park became the town gathering place right from the start, often with the United Verde Band performing. Originally, the park had an iron fence encircling it and at each corner was a turnstile set between concrete pillars. That allowed people to enter the park but kept out the wandering burros that roamed the valley. The burros had been released by early miners in Jerome. The concrete pillars still stand in each corner of the park, a reminder of Clarkdale’s pioneer past.
Through the decades the Town Park has remained the core of Clarkdale.
Today, the park instills Clarkdale with the small-town-America, hipster-Mayberry vibe so cherished by residents and visitors alike. Take the town’s annual Fourth of July celebration that is known far beyond the boundaries of the Verde Valley. It is the kind of patriotic, pitch-perfect slice of Americana that everyone longs for. Festivities kick off with a pancake breakfast and unfold languidly throughout the day with children’s parade, booths and games, the Community Band playing tunes and an ice cream social.
As our lives become more harried and furiously-paced, we long to snatch those kind of old-fashioned and stress-free moments. No doubt that’s one of the reasons for the popularity of the summer concerts in the park, where throngs of folks gather on balmy evenings, sitting on benches or blankets and meeting old friends. If there’s one thing better than Dancing with the Stars, it’s dancing under the stars.
In an era of impersonal social networking, Clarkdale has found a better way. It’s park networking. Neighbors and friends stay connected as they push their kids on the swings, or as their pooches share a series of sniffs and tail wags, or as they sit on the steps of the gazebo and discuss what a great town they live in.
To reserve the gazebo at Town Park, call 928-639-2460.
For more information visit ClarkdaleChamber.com
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