Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — People outside of Salt Lake City have traveled to the city’s Artesian Well Park for years to take with them water from the natural aquifer spring.
It wasn’t an uncommon sight to see people come to the park, located a block north of the vastly large Liberty Park, with large water containers and jugs to take with them as much of the water as possible.
"How many hundreds of thousands of gallons of water have been filled at this well over a century? Really, over a century," said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, just before a bicyclist pulled up to the well behind her to fill up their water bottle.
"How many friendships have been forged here?" she continued. "How many neighbors have bumped into each other? How many joggers have built a new route just so they can stop here and get a cold drink and get some shade? … These improvements are meaningful and they are lasting, and they embody (what) Salt Lake City is and who our people are."
The park surrounding it, located at 808 S. 500 East, officially reopened Wednesday following a $355,000 remodeling project that began toward the end of last year.
The most notable change is access to the well itself, which reopened on July 7 before the rest of the project was completed. Crews removed the concrete casing where people would line up to fill the container they had with them. An arching spigot now allows visitors to fill up containers of all sizes, from a water bottle to a 5-gallon jug.
The existing trees were not touched but the other parts of the park were adjusted. Crews added water-wise vegetation, more lighting and improved seating, and made the park more visible from the street. Improvements were also made for a bus stop adjacent to the park.
The well water has been a feature people have been drawn to from the beginning of Salt Lake City as a community. It is the site of several natural aquifers and ground-level wells in the area. As pointed out by former Salt Lake County councilmember Luke Garrott, whom Mendenhall said was an instrumental figure in getting the renovation project approved, that's the inspiration behind the neighborhood's name, Liberty Wells.
The water, which comes from the Red Butte Creek, was first used as a livestock waterhole. According to the Deseret News, it was even used to water down oxen that went back and forth to haul granite for the Salt Lake Temple project.
Salt Lake City Councilmember Ana Valdemoros noted that the neighborhood surrounding the well is one of the city’s oldest, as it dates back to the earliest years of Utah pioneer settlement. The city opened a park around it in 1979.
"The well and park became a treasure to the neighboring community, the city and even some from further away along the Wasatch Front," she said.
With the renovation officially complete some 40 years after the park first opened, city leaders hope the adjustments will not just build on the location's history, but that it will make the park more desirable for visitors.
"It’s not just a stop-and-go location, this is really a place where you can stay, you can sit and read a book and you can commune with your neighbors as they come through," Mendenhall said. "It was a good space before this and it’s really a wonderful space now."
Editor's note: A previous version of this story said Artesian Well Park is a block to the south of Liberty Park; it is to the north.
