They built it, kids came

COEUR d’ALENE - Twenty-five years ago, Fort Sherman Playground at City Park rose to life.

It took more than a year of planning, five days of construction, and more than 2,000 volunteers to turn lumber into bridges and benches and walkways. It is the foundation for slides and swings and tunnels.

It has been home to the laughter of children, the smiles of parents and the joy of grandparents.

Jon Dohm, president of the Idaho Panhandle Kiwanis Club, knows it well.

“It was a part of my life,” he said. “I would bring my sons here, like every weekend. We lived here, and we played cowboys and Indians and army and I'd swing them on the swing sets until they fell asleep.”

It was that same Idaho Panhandle Kiwanis Club that spearheaded the building of Fort Sherman Playground from May 14 to May 18, 1997.

At 3 p.m. Sunday, the club will celebrate the miracle it pulled off 25 years ago with a ceremony of speeches, cookies and ice cream at the playground. The public is welcome to join them.

Dohm believes it is a fitting time to remember.

“I've seen so many people come in here,” he said. “Men and women with their children. I'll see single fathers and families come down. People from all over the country, all over the world.”

“Lasting memories,” Dohm continued. “And not only that, it's a staple to the community of Coeur d’Alene. This is huge.”

Fort Sherman Playground has lost a bit of its luster with construction of McEuen Park on the east side of The Coeur d’Alene Resort. Not as many kids use it as they once did, but it is still, for many, “the go-to playground,” said Bill Greenwood, Coeur d’Alene parks director.

It is nestled amid the towering pines of the lakefront park that come summer is bustling with young and old.

The city maintains the playground. It pressure washes and stains the lumber with linseed oil every few years.

“People like the rustic aspect of it,” Greenwood said. “It's natural. It has a certain draw that other playgrounds don't have.”

Cort Wilcox was president of the Panhandle Kiwanis when the playground was built over about half an acre.

He recalled that membership was down to about 25 people and they were looking for a project to attract new ones, something to create enthusiasm, a project that would involve hundreds.

They found it when they were told about a different playground in Corvallis, Ore. and saw some pictures of it.

The club consensus: “That’s our project. That’s what we’re going to do.”

City Parks Director at the time, Doug Eastwood, was approached and liked it.

Committees were formed. Meetings were held. Support was rallied. More than $100,000 was raised. Elementary students provided feedback for what they wanted in the playground.

“It was designed with kids in mind,” Wilcox said.

It did what was hoped.

“Everybody took it on; everybody cared,” Wilcox said. “If someone was having difficulty, somebody would pick it up.”

He called it a self-motivated “bunch of good people” with many skills that made it happen.

A company out of New York was hired to oversee things, but the biggest expense was the southern yellow pine lumber, chosen for its durability and smoothness so as to reduce splinters.

Wilcox estimated it would have cost north of $1 million without all the volunteers.

When it finally came time to build, his biggest fear was, no one would show up.

But they did. More than enough.

Over five days, some 2,000 people worked in shifts, piecing together a playground with the lumber cut to dimensions onsite.

Churches provided breakfast and lunch. Service groups pitched in. The North Idaho College carpentry students came out.

Idaho Gov. Phil Batt stopped by for a look and the project garnered national attention, with a plug on “Good Morning America.”

“Probably the biggest thing for us, we didn’t know the enormity of the project when it started,” Wilcox said.

He looks back on it all with pride.

“When you talk to people that have grown up around the project, you get a feel for how important it was,” he said. “Local enthusiasm was remarkable.”

To this day, features on the park carry the names of sponsors. Pickets that surround it are engraved with names of donors who contributed $30 each to raise money.

And Panhandle Kiwanis Club membership grew to more than 70 after the Fort Sherman Playground project.

“It saved the club,” Wilcox said.

Chris Guggemos was Kiwanis at the time.

He recalled changing the words to the song, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” and creating one with the title, “I’ve Been Working on the Playground.”

It was a hit.

He smiles as he walks around the playground on a recent afternoon.

“It’s incredible we put this park together in five days and it still stands today,” he said

Dohm said Fort Sherman Playground has stood the test of the time - and will for generations to come.

It's a reminder of a simpler life when kids made up their own games and carried them out at Fort Sherman.

“It's still going and the kids are still playing and the families are still coming in,” he said. “It's a part of this community. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. They built it with love and excitement.”