Carson Park is a park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It contains a baseball stadium, football stadium, and museum. The park and its stadiums are owned and operated by the City of Eau Claire.
The park is located on a 134-acre (0.54 km2) peninsula created by an oxbow lake, Half Moon Lake, created as part of the former course of the Chippewa River. The park, opened in 1915, was named in honor of the lumber baron, William Carson, whose estate donated the land to the city in 1914.
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The land that became home to Carson Park, located on a peninsula surrounded by Half Moon Lake in Eau Claire, was donated in 1914 to the city of Eau Claire by an heir to William Carson. The following year, the park was opened. Construction of a sports complex, including a baseball stadium, football stadium and tennis courts, began in 1935 as a Works Progress Administration project. The first game in the football stadium was played in 1936, while the first game in the baseball stadium was played in 1937.
The baseball stadium was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.[1]
| Carson Park (baseball stadium) | |
|---|---|
| Location | One Carson Park Drive Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701 |
| Opened | May 4, 1937 |
| Surface | Natural grass |
| Construction cost | $60,000 USD |
| Capacity | 3,800 |
| Field dimensions | Left Field: 320 ft Center Field: 388 ft Right Field: 312 ft |
| Tenants | |
| Eau Claire Bears (1937-1942) Eau Claire Braves (1946-1962) Eau Claire Cavaliers (1971-present) Eau Claire Express (2005-present) |
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Carson Park is home to a baseball stadium, also called Carson Park. It is currently home to the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes, Eau Claire North Huskies, Regis Ramblers and Immanuel Lutheran Lancers high school teams; the Eau Claire Express of the Northwoods League; the Eau Claire Cavaliers and Eau Claire Bears amateur teams; and the Eau Claire Pizza Hut American Legion team.
The stadium used to be the home to the Eau Claire Bears minor league baseball team, a member of the Northern League. The first game was played in the stadium on May 4, 1937, in a Northern League game between the Eau Claire Bears and Superior Blues.
In 1954, the Bears were renamed the Eau Claire Braves. Among those who played for the Bears/Braves were Hank Aaron, Billy Bruton, Wes Covington, Joe Torre, Bob Uecker, Andy Pafko and others who later played in Major League Baseball. Following the departure of the Braves in the 1960s, the Eau Claire Cavaliers amateur team began play in 1971. Under manager Harv Tomter, the team won 5 amateur baseball national championships.
A statue honoring Baseball Hall of Fame player Hank Aaron was erected in front of the stadium in 1994. A renovation project around 1997/98 added permanent seats behind home play, benches in the lower areas of the grandstand, and a remodeled concourse and exterior.
Upon the arrival of the Eau Claire Express Northwoods League franchise in 2005, the stadium underwent renovations for that season. A fan deck was added in the right field corner, a children's area was added along the 3rd-base foul line near the left field corner, and an electronic message board was added to the scoreboard. The field was re-leveled and re-sodded prior to the 2007 season. The press box was expanded with new sections along the first- and third-base sides for the 2009 season. An auxiliary scoreboard was built on the grandstand roof next to the press box on the third-base side for the 2010 season.
The left field wall is adjacent to the sideline of the Carson Park football stadium field. During the football season, temporary bleachers from the baseball stadium are positioned on left field with the front of the bleachers placed along the left field wall facing the football field.
| Carson Park (football stadium) | |
|---|---|
| Location | One Carson Park Drive Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701 |
| Opened | 1936 |
| Surface | Natural grass (1936-2003), FieldTurf (2004-present) |
| Construction cost | $60,000 |
| Capacity | 6,500 |
| Tenants | |
| UWEC Blugolds (1937-present) Chippewa Valley Predators (2005-present) Eau Claire Crush (2007-present) |
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Carson Park contains a football stadium, also called Carson Park, that is home to the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire Blugolds, the Eau Claire Memorial, Eau Claire North and Regis High School football teams, and the Chippewa Valley Predators and Eau Claire Crush of the Northern Elite Football League.
The south side of the field—the far sideline opposite the grandstand and press box—is adjacent to the left field warning track of the Carson Park baseball stadium. During the football season, temporary bleachers from the baseball stadium are placed in left field along where the left field wall is to provide additional sideline seating for the football stadium.
The UW–Eau Claire Blugold football team began play in the stadium in 1937. A tornado that moved through Eau Claire on September 12, 1982, destroyed the press box at the football stadium. A larger, multi-level press box was constructed in the same location. A renovation to the football stadium's grandstand and separate concession/bathroom facilities took place in the late 1990s.
The stadium eventually became the home to multiple high school football teams in the city of Eau Claire. With more teams using the field in the fall, wear on the field increased, resulting in a deterioration of the grass during games played later in the season. During games played in wet conditions, mud became a factor, and games in following days would be played on a field with a noticeable amount of exposed dirt. The city of Eau Claire attempted several alternative natural grass fields, beginning in the 1990s. One field, using the Rebound system (consisting of bits of used rubber tires mixed in the grass), was installed in 1995, but did not prove durable. The UW–Eau Claire Blugolds moved their home games to Simpson Field on the upper campus of the university for one season in 1996 in an attempt to allow the grass field to take hold. Despite talks in 2002 about a new stadium for the Blugolds, a solution to the field problem came in 2004 with the installation of a FieldTurf artificial surface.
In addition to the stadium, the Chippewa Valley Museum, and the Paul Bunyan Logging Camp, which celebrates the town's lumbering history, are located here. The park also features a number of nature trails and offers other recreational activities. Half Moon Lake is the original home of the Eau Claire Ski Sprites, a water skiing show team, and the Eau Claire Horseshoe Club[2].
Carson Park was the home to the historic locomotive Soo Line 2719 from 1960 to 1996.[3] From Memorial Day through Labor Day, the Chippewa Valley Railroad Association operates a one-half mile rail-car excursion in the park.
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