Nielsen's Grove, a garden that came back

The City of Orem says it is, and prints that on the park's own page. The dates behind the label are clear enough to judge for yourself: Jorgen Nielsen began laying out the garden in 1880, it worked as an ornamental pleasure ground through the late nineteenth century, it declined into farmland and then swamp, and the city bought the site in the mid 1990s and reopened the recreated park in June 2005. Whether decades as swamp break the chain is a matter of definition.

A Danish immigrant who settled in the Provo area in the 1860s and had been taught horticulture by an uncle who gardened for the Danish court. He acquired the ground on what is now Sandhill Road in the early 1880s and built an ornamental pleasure garden on it rather than farming it: a spring fed pond, poplars and mulberries, trellised picnic arbors and marble statuary, laid out with what the City of Orem still describes as European castle garden design. People came from the settlements around to walk, picnic and dance there.

Walk it, mainly, and that is not a criticism. A two mile path circles the 21 acre grounds, the pond and its fountain sit at the center and run seasonally from roughly May to early October, there are historic structures and a barn in the grounds, and there is a playground with large swings. In April roughly 24,000 tulips come up in the garden area, which is the single best couple of weeks of the Orem year. There are restrooms and parking on site and the whole thing is free.

Partly, and the arrangement catches people out. One large pavilion with barbecue braziers, seating 120, is reservable through the City of Orem, and a shaded pavilion is reservable too. The small pavilions are first come, first served and cannot be booked at all, and the historic barn is not reservable. On a summer Saturday that means arriving early rather than holding a reservation, and it means confirming which structure you have actually booked before you invite anybody.

In spring, with April the reliable month, and roughly 24,000 of them come up in the garden area. The exact window moves with the weather from one year to the next, as it does with every bulb display, so the sensible approach is to watch the city's own channels rather than book a trip on a fixed date. The planting sits among mature trees and around water rather than in modern bedding rows, which is why it looks different from most municipal displays, and it costs nothing to see.

At 1931 South Sandhill Road, on the southwest side of Orem, with its own parking. Sandhill Road runs southwest from the middle of the city out toward the lake flats, which puts the park well away from the State Street and University Parkway corridors that carry most of Orem's traffic. That is a large part of why it stays quiet: it is the least likely of the city's headline attractions to be found by somebody passing through, and it is about eight minutes by car from the civic block.

Yes, including the parking. There is no admission to the park, the pond, the garden area, the two mile path or the playground, and the small pavilions are free to use on a first come basis. The only money that changes hands is a pavilion reservation fee if you book the large pavilion or the shaded pavilion through the City of Orem. In a city where most of the good list is free, this is one of the better examples.

The City of Orem lists around 20 named parks on its own parks page, ranging from this one to a larger park with an outdoor amphitheater and a city pool nearby, a civic block with an all abilities playground, a sports complex with several soccer and ball fields, and two parks with summer splash pads. For a city of 18.61 square miles with very little remaining undeveloped land, that density is deliberate: a city that cannot expand outward adds amenity by improving the ground it already holds.

A two mile loop inside the park, which is a walk rather than a route to anywhere. The ground here is flat lake bench on the southwest side of the city and the water is a managed pond rather than a stream. If you want elevation, Orem's bench access is at the other end of the city: the Orem Trailhead sits above the water tanks at the north end of 800 East, reached via Cascade Drive, with water and restrooms, and the Bonneville Shoreline Trail runs north from there toward the Dry Canyon trailhead.