Greeley City Council names new west-side park Ferguson Park

The Greeley City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday to officially name a new 27-acre community park on the city’s west side Ferguson Park. The resolution, listed as Item 16, recognizes the Ferguson family’s stewardship of the land and its contribution to Greeley’s parks and open space system.

Culture, Parks and Recreation staff told council the park site was made possible by the family’s wish to keep the property in a natural state and work with the city on its acquisition. Susan Murray, manager of the Planning and Capital Projects Division, said the late Jim Ferguson cared for the property for years and that his son, the late Mark Ferguson, helped ensure the family’s legacy would continue. She said naming the park Ferguson Park honors that care for the landscape and the family’s role in expanding public open space.

Wendy Adams Spencer, speaking for the family, said her father bought the land about 40 years ago and turned it into a place for recreation and family gatherings. She said he planted all of the trees on the property by hand using low-cost state tree stock and hauled water there by truck because the site had no water source. “When you drive down 34, it’s the only property along there that has any trees in it, and that’s because he planted them all by hand,” she said.

Adams Spencer said the property also hosted family harvest gatherings centered on Jim Ferguson’s giant pumpkins, including one that reached 425 pounds. She said the land includes a wetland and the Boomerang Ditch, and that the city’s park plans preserve what her father created. What was once “very far west outside of town,” she said, is now set to become a city park.

Mayor Dale Hall thanked the family for the land donation before making the motion to approve the naming resolution. After the unanimous vote, he again thanked the family and said the city would “put good use” to the property.