Riverside's Rick Martin Memorial Park

The Rick Martin Memorial Park (previously Prospect Park) in Riverside is visited by hundreds of folks, both local and tourists, year around. The history of this beautiful play area is somewhat blurry with several possible scenarios.

Helen Weiland came to live in Riverside in 1955 and provided some interesting trivia. Weiland currently takes care of the park, maintaining the restrooms, mowing and taking care of the flowers, as well as providing mosquito abatement measures to assure the comfort of visitors. She has been taking care of the park for 14 years.

Robert Dailey chipped in last year to help with some of the "handyman" type jobs that needed to be done, as well as taking care of the landscape.

The town of Riverside takes pride in this park/playground and has for many years. Recently, volunteers and paid staff have been working to make improvements to the park. New playground equipment was installed this year thanks to Mackenzie Rakness who researched funding options and the Riverside Town Council. There are also new benches, and a new basketball hoop this year. New heated restrooms will be installed near the entrance to make them more accessible to seniors and handicapped next year.

This park hosts an Easter egg hunt and a community picnic sponsored by the Town of Riverside each year. This is also a go-to for family get togethers and reunions.

Mother Mountain Anglers sponsors the Annual Tale of Two Cities disc golf tournament that goes through this area. Members of this organization are also committed to helping keep this park clean and fun.

Dick Perue, local historian and former publisher/editor of the Saratoga Sun, also has a good deal of historical information concerning this area. A page from the Saratoga Record, a newspaper published on December 25,1901, gives a thorough description of Riverside, Wyoming. The park is mentioned in this article saying "the town park, which is laid out on the tree bordered banks of the Encampment river, promises to become Eden".

There is no mention however, of when the playground equipment was installed. Weiland said when they arrived, there was a swing set with wooden seats, a slide and rings hanging from the bar. The slide is a legend in itself–being high and somewhat dangerous. Doggett Greenhouse even created a t-shirt saying "Ride the slide in Riverside". The old timers call it the death slide.

Weiland says that when she was a child there wasn't an actual maintenance program in place, so the grass got high and the mosquitoes were hungry. In order to solve this problem, Weiland, along with her siblings and her friends, would tie their horses in the park so that the horses could graze all night, thereby "mowing" the grass. The kids would sleep on the ground while their horses took care of the landscaping.

There is a legend that the UW Basketball Star, Kenny Sailors, once lived in this area and had established a boys ranch which included the park. The story goes that Sailors donated the property to the town of Riverside when he closed the ranch down.

The park was dedicated June 30, 1968 to the memory of Pfc. Richard M. Martin who was drafted into the Army in April 1968. His specialty was Light Weapons Infantry. He was a member of the 25th Infantry Division, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry, B Company. Martin was the Valley's first Vietnam casualty, killed in May 1968.

Weiland remembers when they received the news Martin had been killed three days prior to her graduation from high school. HR "Bob" Herring did the rock work for the memorial.

Wandering through the lush grass, around the giant cottonwoods one can almost hear voices from the past as the children played in the sunshine, begging to swing higher and the old folks gathered under the shade of the trees to visit. Standing near the pavilion one can imagine the scent of fried chicken and chocolate cake from picnics past.