The Big Pool

HUGE swimming pool The Garden City Municipal Pool is located on the south edge of town near the Lee Richardson Zoo, Clint Lightner Baseball Field, Finney County Museum and Finnup Park.  Outside of the regular pool hours, swimmers may use the spray park for free admission. During the regular pool hours, all persons entering will need to pay the daily admission fee of $2 per person. Initially named by its developers "The Big Dipper", Garden City's "The Big Pool" is larger than a 100-yard football field, holds 2.2 million gallons of water, and is large enough to accommodate water-skiing. Originally hand-dug in 1922, a bathhouse was added by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, and local farmers used horse-drawn soil-scrapers to later enlarge the pool. The pool hosts 50-meter Olympic swimming lanes, three water slides, and a children's pool with zero-entry depth. The pool employs a minimum of fourteen lifeguards, two slide assistants, three admission clerks, two concession workers and a pool manager on duty each day. Advertised for years as "The World's Largest, Free, Outdoor, Municipal, Concrete Swimming Pool", the pool has been known to count up to 2,000 patrons when open during the summer months. In order to finance improvements made in recent years, an admission is now charged.