Stricklin Park

Stricklin Forest Park
A Saga of Community Spirit
(Article published in the Daily courier, October 26, 1999)
by Carol Rawlings

Just off Thumb Butte Road, along Sherwood Drive, lies an unusual Prescott park, the Howard Stricklin Forest Park. It has no swing sets ball gel’s or restrooms. Instead it preserves a little piece of Prescott’s riparian ecology and throws in some art and an archaeological site for good measure.

Butte Creek, or Potts Creek as it is still called by some Prescott old-timers, flows through the park. It is a tributary of Granite Creek and, like the entire creek system of the Prescott area, it is an intermittent stream. It has water open enough, however, to maintain a healthy creek-side vegetation attractive to birds and wild animals. Apparently it was also enough to sustain a small settlement of prehistoric people. The remains of their homes lie on the bench above the creek among the pines and junipers typical of the Prescott area.

Contemporary visitors can enjoy the stream-side ambience while resting on several sculptural stone seating areas created by local sculptors Rebecca Davis and Roger Asay. For those visitors seeking exercise, the park is the trail head for the Butte Creek Trail.

Creating a Park

The five-acre park is a testament to volunteer effort and civic responsibility. In the summer of 1988, Howard Sticklin alerted the community to a developer’s plan to bulldoze a road up the Butte Creek gorge in order to kin access to road less property upstream. The Forest Service was also preparing to trade federal land to private concerns. It seemed clear that the area between Butte and Aspen creeks, long a favorite area for hikers and horseback riders, was about to be developed.

A well-known civic leader in Prescott, Stricklin urged public acquisition of some of the rocky, forested land where he and his grandchildren loved to walk. He had retired to Prescott from a long career in the National Park Service, including several years as chief ranger and then superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park. In response to Stricklin’s suggestion, Barbara Polk of the city’s Recreation Services Advisory Committee appointed a citizen group to study the idea. Their final report, presented in January 1989, advised against development on steep hillsides and recommended acquisition of 600 acres to be preserved as open space. The report was endorsed by the parent committee and by Prescott Recreation Services Director James McCasland.

When the advisory committee finished its work, five of its members, including Stricklin, decided to continue their advocacy for the area. Joined by other concerned citizens, the Aspen/Butte Creek Preservation Committee, as they called themselves, collected and presented to Mayor Ken Shafer the signatures of 1700 citizens who supported the committee’s report.

In the ensuing months the little group worked with the Prescott City Council and staff, the Forest Service, the Cory Family, a national land trust, and congressional representatives in hopes of finding a way to preserve a large area of green space. They discovered that the five-acre plot through which the developer had hoped to bulldoze his road was for sale. Envisioning it as a kind of gateway to a larger green belt, they eventually persuaded the city to purchase the land with money acquired from the corporation that developed the Depot Marketplace. The city appraisal, however, was $19,000 less than the owner was willing to sell the land for. Mayor Shafer challenged the little ad-hoc committee to raise that sum. The community responded with remarkable generosity, and the entire sum was raised in a few weeks’ time with contributions ranging from $5 to $2000 from individuals, businesses, and organizations. In September 1989, the city council voted to purchase the land, and Prescott had a new park.

Howard Stricklin died very suddenly the next year. In 1992, at the request of his friends and neighbors, the city council named the new park for this exemplary citizen. Although hopes had been dashed for the larger preserve he and others had worked for, the little park was in itself something to cherish. Because of its unusual nature, it was designated a “forest” park.

Enter Prescott Audubon Society

The next phase of community interest and effort in Stricklin Park began in June 1995 when the Prescott Audubon Society signed an agreement with the city to “adopt” it. Over the next four years PAS committed thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours to clean up, restore, and enhance the park. Their efforts were made possible by large bequests to the society from members Arthur and Clara Nagel and Hugh Graham who wanted the money to be used “for the good of the people of Prescott.”

Prescott Audubon had been one of the largest donors in the original effort to acquire the park, so it was natural that when they looked around for a suitable project to fulfill the wishes of their benefactors, they would include Stricklin Park in their list of possibilities. Largely unmentioned by the city, the land had been littered and, worse, scarred by motorized vehicles using it as access to the larger forested area beyond. The committee charged with the project was led by much-lauded community volunteer and past president of Prescott Audubon, Robert Sullivan. Recognizing the value of the park as a one specimen of a local riparian habitat, an excellent outdoor classroom, and a quiet place for people to rest and refresh themselves, the group committed their money, time, and efforts to making the little park the jewel it had the potential to be.

Calling on volunteers from PAS, other members of the community, and what city crews could be allotted, the committee cleaned up trash, cut invasive weeds, re-seeded bare areas with native plants, and installed a drip system to water the 50 or 60 seedling trees they planted. They laid out a wheel-chair accessible loop trail to allow handicapped visitors to enter the preserve more easily, and they instilled small signs along it to identify some common native plants.

Troon Corporation, by now developing their Hassayampa project south of the park, agreed to donate a number of the large boulders they unearthed. PAS commissioned environmental sculptors Rebecca Davis and Roger Asay to use these boulders in a number of ways. The most striking is the sculpture/seating area, called Stone Circle, Butte Creek. But the artists also placed flat boulders along the walkway for further seating and other large stones along the street edge of the park to prevent further vehicle incursion. Above the creek, just off the Butte Creek Trail, they created two pine-sheltered nooks dedicated to Robert Sullivan, who died in 1997, and to Howard Stricken, in honor of all the two men had contributed to the park and the Prescott-area community. The bronze plaque to Sullivan was donated by PAS, the one to Stricklin by his friends and neighbors.

The Audubon committee also turned its attention to the prehistoric site above the creek. At their request, the Yavapai chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society surveyed and partially excavated the site in the summer and fall of 1997. They uncovered the remains of pothouses, which they believe were inhabited by the Prescott People 700 to 1100 years ago.  Ginger Johnson wrote a report of their activities and conclusions and filed copies with PAS, the City of Prescott and Sharlot Hall Museum. The excavation has been backfilled to protect it, but Prescott Audubon hopes to further develop the site for its educational value to the community.

The ruins sit next to the Butte Creek Trail, which is a collaborative project of Hassayampa and the City of Prescott and is part of the Mile-High Trail System. The marked trail head is in Stricklin Park along Sherwood Drive. Occasionally following the old community trail, the new trail winds through rocky, forested areas alongside the homes and fairways of Hassayampa. As it climbs toward the Sierra Prieta, it gives hikers grand views toward Thumb Butte and down into the Butte Creek gorge. The trail currently ends at the national forest boundary, but it will eventually connect with a network of Forest Service trails.

Except for further work on the archaeological site, Prescott Audubon Society has accomplished what it set out to do at Stricklin Park. Its members will, however, continue to be friends of the park and help keep it in good condition. They feel confident that the natural beauty of the park and the contributions of hundreds of people who have helped, in one way or another, to make it what it has become will keep the park and community connected.

 

STRICKLIN FOREST PARK
IMPROVEMENTS AND “SPRING CLEANING”

Stricklin Forest Park, the 5-acre Open Space Nature Preserve on Sherwood Drive near Thumb Butte Road, is a neighborhood Open Space oasis, with Butte Creek flowing under large Cottonwood trees in a meadow and huge Ponderosas on the hillside.  It also embraces an archaeological site, evidence of others who valued the site in their day.  The City purchased the park in 1989 after a neighborhood campaign provided matching funds form private citizens.  The Park stands as an example of City and its residents working together.

Fast forward to today.  Stricklin Forest Park is still vital, with habitat for people, for birds, for native plants.  It is a spot shared by all.  It’s also endured some gouging monsoon events and scarring from social trails and erosion.  For years, Prescott Audubon Society has enjoyed the park for birding field trips, so they have decided to give back, organizing an effort to clean and gently improve the park.  Besides clearing of monsoon debris, work will include new signage, modifications to the Butte Creek Trail to reduce erosion, a new and safer bridge over the creek, and enhancements to the channels for water during the monsoons.  The curb along the park will also be repaired.  If funding can be found, organizers hope to replace the paved handicapped-accessible trail.   Work should be completed by the end of the summer.

The first “Spring Cleaning” effort will be Friday and  Saturday, April 25^th & 26^th. Prescott Audubon is partnering with the City’s Park and Recreation Dept, the Over-the-Hill Gang, the City’s Streets Department, the Archaeological Society, Landscapes for Life, and the Stricklin Forest Park neighborhood. 

Click HERE for Photos of Latest Restoration Work