Many pastimes stem from ML first residents

MOSES LAKE - With its artificial surfing simulator, "Lazy River" and water slides, the Surf 'n Slide Water Park in Moses Lake is a big draw for Basin residents each summer.

But at what point did the town's residents decide a community swimming spot was something they wanted to invest in?

The answer to that question can be found in the Moses Lake history books, Moses Lake Museum and Art Center Manager Freya Liggett said.

"There has been a concept of community long before we were even a community," she said.

Based on stories and photographs, swimming has been a favorite recreational past time for residents for decades.

"Businesses used to close for the day if it got too hot and have swimming parties," Liggett said. "The whole town would go and swim."

Swimming parties were all the rage even before Moses Lake was called Moses Lake. She referenced an old photograph that showed Neppel residents enjoying one of the town's many swimming parties.

Since swimming was so popular, it was no surprise the town's infrastructure eventually included a community pool, Liggett said.

"In the 1960s Moses Lake Mayor Alex Law was thinking about capital improvements and the development of McCosh Park and the pool were included," she said. "He thought those were important projects."

City parks specifically came into play when Moses Lake was incorporated in 1938, Liggett said. With the creation of a Parks and Recreation department, city officials could start setting up public parks, she said.

But community parks existed years before the city began developing them, Liggett said.

"The Neppel Record, which was before the Columbia Basin Herald, had stories of landowners keeping a section of their property landscaped and set up so others could use them as parks," Liggett said. "People were having the idea for shared green spaces for a while."

A lot of the recreational activities Moses Lake residents enjoy now, were also enjoyed by the town's earliest settlers, she said.

"There really is that link to history," Liggett said.

Moses Lake resident Sally McLanahan can vouch for that fact. McLanahan moved to Moses Lake from Walla Walla in 1955.

One of the first things she remembers doing is getting involved in Little League baseball.

"The international league played at Peninsula Field, where Peninsula School is," she said.

The town had three leagues at the time, McLanahan said. Fields weren't as developed back then, and players would use paper bags for bases.

"They would blow away a lot," she recalled.

McLanahan remembers a Little League parade that was held downtown in 1959. Hundreds of players walked in that parade, she said.

"Where Ace Hardware is now, there was another store and they started there," she said. "They went down Third Avenue and back up Broadway."

Baseball continued to grow in popularity, McLanahan said. Two of her sons played baseball growing up, and she got to see the town develop its playing fields, she said.

"There's been a lot of changes over the year, a lot of new parks," McLanahan said.

Although she originally moved to Moses Lake for her husband's job, she said Moses Lake is now home.

"At first I didn't want to come, but now I don't ever want to leave," McLanahan said.