News

Oct 29, 2024

Elam Park in Broken Arrow is Open! - TulsaKids Magazine

The secret is out! This weekend, we visited Broken Arrow’s Elam Park playground – which opened last Wednesday – and it was busy, busy, busy! I’ve been anticipating the opening of Elam Park for months.

The secret is out! This weekend, we visited Broken Arrow’s Elam Park playground – which opened last Wednesday – and it was busy, busy, busy! I’ve been anticipating the opening of Elam Park for months. I wrote an article about “5 New Playgrounds to Visit This Summer” for our 2024 Summer Family Fun Guide, and Elam Park was on the list. Well, it wasn’t quite ready for opening over the summer. But the wait is over, and local families seem thrilled, as evidenced by our visit!

Similar to Whiteside’s Hope Playground, the Elam Park playground is accessible for children of all ages and abilities. Inclusive equipment includes a wheelchair-accessible glider, see-saw and merry-go-round.

The glider is in the background

There are even two ziplines! One has a secure swing seat that is good for younger children as well as children with disabilities. And Elam Park has other wheelchair-accessible elements as well, like musical instruments, ramps to access equipment and more.

The swing seat isn’t pictured here, but is on the right side zipline

According to a news report at brokenarrowok.gov, Broken Arrow Mayor Debra Wimpee said, “This is the first park of its kind in Broken Arrow. Elam Park’s opening marks a significant achievement for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Elam Park is expected to serve as a benchmark for future developments, ensuring that inclusivity and accessibility remain at the forefront of our community planning.”

Parents of littles may be happy to hear that there is a large section of the playground just for younger kids! This includes multiple climbing structures and a whole row of swings.

This is just one portion of the toddler area

One interesting feature in this area is the Communication Board. Here, nonverbal visitors can point to images on the board to communicate their needs.

Joss’s favorite two elements were the zipline and merry-go-round. He came up with lots of…creative…ways to ride the merry-go-round, and wanted it to go faster, faster, faster! We did see more than one child have an incident when using the playground because there were so many kids riding at once. One poor little girl fell out and got run over by a couple of kids spinning the merry-go-round before they realized what had happened and could slow down. So….just be aware of that.

We also liked the multiple climbing elements. You could get on the main playground structure by a rock wall, ladder, ramp, ropes…you name it.

And one of my favorite parts was the cute log-and-acorn seating area. How cute is this?! The acorn chairs were pretty comfy, too, as long as you don’t need back support.

There is a nice new restroom to go along with the new playground. There’s a family restroom in addition to men’s and women’s entrances. And a drinking fountain/water bottle filling station.

Near the restroom, visitors will find a picnic area. And next to the parking lot, there’s an even larger collection of picnic tables. I think these are more connected to the sports fields that are behind the playground.

This is just Phase 1 of Elam Park’s development. According to this Channel 9 story, Broken Arrow voters can vote on Phase 2 elements in two years.

So, if I’ve convinced you to check out Elam Park, you may be wondering where it is! Elam Park is located behind Aspen Creek Elementary, whose address is 2800 W. Florence St., Broken Arrow. It’s near the Florence and Aspen intersection. We just keyed in Aspen Creek Elementary into our Google maps and were able to find it. I’m sure it will be easier to key in “Elam Park” in the future, but our Maps was having trouble finding it.

Here are a few more photos:

Elam Park entrance