SILOAM SPRINGS -- What was a concept for a park a couple years ago turned into reality as the Whitewater Recreation Park is available for use.
It's on Fisher Ford Road about 4 miles south of the city on the Illinois River. It includes two engineered rapids, a swimming area with riverside seating, paved walking trail, a boulder for climbing, rain garden, picnic area, changing area and portable toilets. The rapids are class II to III.
At A Glance
Opening Set
The opening for the Siloam Springs Whitewater Recreation Park will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 28. There will be entertainment, vendors, demonstrations, kayaking lessons and free food to the first 500 people in attendance. There will be a whitewater rodeo from 2 to 5 p.m. The park is at 19253 Fisher Ford Road.
Source: City Of Siloam Springs
The vision for the park was to create a whitewater amenity where kayakers could play and the public could enjoy the river, said Shane Sigle, project engineer of Recreation, Engineering and Planning in Boulder, Colo.
The company has built numerous whitewater parks from Nevada to Colorado and Montana to Ohio and New York. The Siloam Springs park is the company's first in Arkansas. Construction began in September.
"The idea is to certainly enhance the area, create habitat out here but to draw the public," Sigle said Tuesday during a media day at the park.
The two rapids were designed with currents bringing paddlers back up after going through the rapids. Anytime there's a jet of water, a void is created on both sides of it that's naturally filled in by water. That creates a recirculated pattern called an eddy, Sigle said.
"The idea is that it brings you back up so you can play again," he said. "It's like a conveyor belt."
It's designed to be at its prime during summer's low-water level, Sigle said.
The Arkansas Canoe Club helped design the park where many of its members paddled before the park was built, said Steve Runnels, club member who was the liaison to designers of the park.
"It's a lot more than what we had anticipated," he said of the finished product.
The rapids, back eddies, current lines and surfing wave allow for people to experience situations they would on any river, but in a more controlled environment, Runnels said.
"You're practicing what you're going to see without the commitment of being on a big river," he said.
There will be growing pains when tubers and paddlers interact, Runnels added.
"We're not used to paddling around tubers. Tubers aren't used to tubing through paddlers," he said. He encouraged all who use the park to be patient with each other as the growing pains are worked out.
The park is about 30 acres and cost $2 million, which was given by the Walton Family Foundation.
The foundation approached the city about two years ago and asked if it would be interested in maintaining the land if the foundation gave money to build the park, said Randy Atkins, public service manager.
"We thought it would be cool," he said. "It would be an economic draw for Siloam Springs."
People will come from surrounding areas for this park, Atkins said.
NW News on 06/04/2014