#2 - A park mystery:

People strolling through the park generally walk to the right of the Water Tower. This is the east side of Volunteer Park, bordering 15th Avenue East. A giant Sequoia dominates the space, overlooking clusters of blue Rhododendrons, returned to their natural color because they have adapted to their environment.

Pause here for a moment to observe the plaque with distinctive eagle carving standing slightly beyond this area. Erected in 1953, the plaque documents that Volunteer Park was renamed in 1901 in tribute to the Volunteer Soldiers who so valiantly served in the Spanish-American War.

Just behind this plaque is the site of the Sun Dial and the source of an interesting mystery. After being vandalized once too often, the Sun Dial was removed from the park and placed in storage. Its whereabouts are, unfortunately, currently unknown.

On the other side of the path, in this area, one finds the Burke Memorial by sculptor Herman A. MacNeil. Behind the cherry trees to the west of the Water Tower, the statue honors Judge Thomas Burke (1849-1925) who is described as "patriot, jurist, orator, friend, patron of education."

Continue in the same direction. Here, as in other areas of the park where the pathways open onto wide spaces, one has the sense of the design element of "enlarged freedom" - space without boundary - about which Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. wrote often.