Swope Park

Coordinates: 39°00′28″N 94°32′05″W / 39.007813°N 94.5348°W

Starlight Theatre

Swope Park is an 1,805-acre city park in Kansas City, Missouri. It is the 29th-largest municipal park in the United States, and the largest park in Kansas City.[1] It is named in honor of Colonel Thomas H. Swope, a philanthropist who donated the land to the city in 1896. In the 1,769 acres (7.16 km2), it hosts Starlight Theatre, an 8,000+ seat outdoor theater; training grounds for Sporting Kansas City and their reserve team, affectionately called the Swope Park Rangers; the Kansas City Zoological Park; ten shelter houses and a host of athletic venues including baseball diamonds, soccer fields, a swimming pool, a frisbee golf course and Swope Memorial Golf Course, a public golf course that hosted the 1949 Kansas City Open Invitational, a PGA Tour event. Also located in the park is the Lakeside Nature Center, one of Missouri's largest native species rehabilitation facilities, which serves as an environmental educational center.[2]

Only a small part of the park is developed, the rest is heavily wooded. The main shelter house is located at 66th street and Swope Parkway.

The park is featured prominently in the fictional works of Robert A. Heinlein, who grew up in and around Kansas City.

References

  1. ↑ "Largest Parks". The Trust for Public Land. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
  2. ↑ Cole, Suzanne P.; Engle, Tim; Winkler, Eric (April 23, 2012). "50 things every Kansas Citian should know". Kansas City Star. Retrieved April 23, 2012.

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