Baran-Unland: Where have all the swimming holes gone?

Has Joliet become an outdoor swimming desert?

Splash Station Waterpark, which won’t open for the fourth year in a row, is not the first outdoor swim spot in Joliet to close, as any longtime resident will tell you.

I personally remember four outdoor swimming holes: the Joliet Beach Club, the pool up on the hill at Highland Park and Nowell Park pool (all of Joliet’s East side) as well as Inwood Park pool at Inwood Recreation Center, on Joliet’s West side.

[ Memories of the former Joliet Beach Club ]

Other folks also remember an outdoor pool at Heggie Field, also on Joliet’s east side.

A 2003 Herald-News story said the Joliet Park District opened the Highland Park and Heggie Field pools in 1960.

I’m not sure when the Heggie Field pool closed. But the pool in Highland Park was open until at least 1974. For that was the summer my mother let me finally swim in it.

My family and I had moved to Joliet in 1963. We lived Belmont Avenue, practically in walking district to the Highland Park pool and near the old Boy Scout cabin, also gone.

The area near Highland Park pool also had tennis courts (I took lessons the summer of 1974), two playgrounds and an old dance hall that St. Bernard Catholic School, also gone, used for concessions at its annual all-school picnic.

My architect father recalled the hall. He said it was a simple building: a slab, metal roof and exposed beams.

[ Before Frisbee golf, Highland Park in Joliet had a much different look ]

Highland Park now has a disc golf course. But the beautiful area on top of the hill at Highland Park is now nothing but a hill.

Here’s how dismal Joliet’s pool situation was by 2018: The Joliet Park District was looking at pools outside Joliet for one of its day camps.

Because Inwood’s outdoor 50-meter pool, which the Joliet Park District opened in 1961, closed permanently in 2003, a 2003 Herald-News story said.

And Nowell Park pool closed two years later. Attendance was poor at the 76-year-old Nowell Park pool, according a 2005 Herald-News story.

In 2004, only 825 people went to Nowell Park pool, which had room for 500 at a time. But that year, average daily attendance was 17, with 23 days where not a single swimmer ever dipped a toe.

Nowell Park also needed $25,000 in repairs, the story said. Eventually, the pool was filled in; the bathhouse was torn down; and a recreation building went up.

[ Then & Now: Nowell Park – Joliet ]

Neighboring towns, however, were attracting plenty of swimmers.

A 1997 Herald-News story said the $2.2 million Tomahawk Aquatic Center in Channahon, which was four years old at the time, had 21,000 people visit it in 1996. Channahon, also at the time, had just 6,000 residents, the story said.

In Bolingbrook, an estimated 90,000 people “christened” the $3 million Pelican Harbor water park in 1996, the story said.

By contrast, Joliet had two outdoor pools in 1996: Inwood and Nowell. But only 8,500 of its 85,000 residents paid to use them that year, the story said.

The rationale was that plain, old swimming pools could no longer compete with water parks.

Enter Splash Station.

The $10 million facility broke ground in 2001 and featured water slides, a zero-depth pool, a 750-foot-long lazy river and inner-tube slide, according to a 2001 Herald-News story.

Splash Station was part of Joliet’s $55 million five-year economic development plan, the story said. Other projects in that plan included the baseball field now known as the DuPage Medical Group Field, the Joliet Area Historical Museum and the Joliet Public Library’s Black Road branch.

A 2005 Herald-News story said Splash Station had lost money since it opened, despite two increases in admission prices.

Daily admission for Splash Station in 2002 was $7.50 for residents and $10 for nonresidents, according to a 2002 Herald-News story.

By 2017, admission was $10 for adult residents and $8 for kids under 48 inches tall, with children under age 2 free. Twilight charges were $6 for adults and $4 for kids. Non-resident prices in 2017 were $15 for adults and $12 for kids Twilight charges were $10 for adults and $6 for kids.

This year, Pelican Harbor is currently $10 for residents and $17 for non-residents for all outdoor attractions, according to its website.

And Heritage Falls Water Park in Romeoville, part of the Lockport Township Park District, is currently charging $9 with a park district resident card and $14 without one, according to its website.

Can Joliet residents just not afford to swim?

In 2020, for instance, the poverty level was 7.8% for Bolingbrook, 7.1% for Lockport, 4.3% for Channahon and 10.5% for Joliet, according to the U.S. Census.

And the annual household income in 2020 for Bolingbrook was $92,184, while Lockport was $87,817, Channahon was $99,429 and Joliet was $72,871, also according to the U.S. Census.

So maybe swimming is just too expensive in Joliet.

Or maybe plain, old water parks can no longer compete.