The Champaign Park District is the municipality association responsible for the award-winning park

Park

A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

s in the city of Champaign, Illinois

Champaign, Illinois

Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...

. With over 500 acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s (2 km²) of parkland within the city limits, Champaign has one of the highest ratios of park land to developed land of any American city.

West Side Park

The 12.5 acre (51,000 m²) West Side Park is located in downtown

Downtown

Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....

 Champaign, blocks away from the busy streets and within full view of City Hall

City hall

In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...

. Originally zoned

Zoning

Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...

 for the city square and future county courthouse (which was later sited in Urbana, Illinois

Urbana, Illinois

Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....

), it became in 1859 the first park in the system. Known as the commons when it was first created, it was in 1861 designated as a public cow pasture

Pasture

Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...

 where any citizen might graze their cow for a fee of $

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

0.35 per month.

Benjamin F. Johnson (1818–1894), an executive of the Illinois Central Railroad

Illinois Central Railroad

The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...

, donated $10,000 to the city for the building of a statue

Statue

A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...

 and bandstand

Bandstand

A bandstand is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts...

 in the commons. Sadly this was not completed until five years after his death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....

. The statue "A Prayer for Rain" was sculpted by Edward Kemeys

Edward Kemeys

Edward L. Kemeys was an American sculptor.He is best known for his sculptures of animals, particularly the two bronze lions that mark the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago Illinois.-Life:...

 (1843–1907) and placed atop Johnson fountain. Both were dedicated to the project's benefactor in 1899.

Other notable monuments in what is now known as West Side park include the Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 Monolith

Monolith

A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument...

, and several statues and plaques commemorating the Indian War

Indian Wars

American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...

.

Dodds Park

Dodds Park is located in Northwestern Champaign near Parkland College

Parkland College

Parkland College is a is a two-year community college in Champaign, Illinois, a member of the Illinois Community College System serving Community College District 505. District 505 includes all of Ford County, and parts of Coles, Champaign, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Iroquois, Livingston, Moultrie,...

. This 110 acre (445,000 m²) park (roughly one fifth of the total Park District holdings) is noted for the "Tribute to Olympic Athletes Monument" on its grounds. The park was purchased in 1969 for the sum of $298,495.

The "Tribute to Olympic Athletes" was created to honor those residents of Champaign County who have competed in the Olympics

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

. To date nearly 30 athletes are commemorated on the monument, and the competitors from the 2000 and 2004 games have yet to be added. The monument consists of several rising plateaus forming a walkway leading to a large granite gateway. Beyond the gateway a pedestal overlooking the playing fields in Dodds Park is inscribed with the names of those who have represented Champaign County in the Olympics. A full list of athletes can be found at the official website.

Also located in Dodds park is the "Prairie

Prairie

Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

 Grid Sculpture", a 1978 sculpture by Barry Henemann that somewhat resembles a horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

. Originally contracted to be displayed for one year, it has since become an odd landmark

Landmark

This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...

 of the park.

The particular Champaign Park District operations division that maintains the sports facilities at Dodds is often considered to be the elite work force of the organization. In 2007 they were awarded the prestigious ILSTMA Field of the Year award under the leadership of Mick Tempel who left the Park District in 2008 to become the assistant superintendent of the Champaign Country Club. Other noteworthy recipients of the award include Timothy Hagley, a resident of Champaign, and Kyle Smith of Mattoon Illinois.

Centennial Park

Centennial Park can be found in West Champaign

Champaign, Illinois

Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...

 near Centennial High School

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

. Centennial Park currently contains 134 acres (542,000 m²) of land, making it the largest park in the system. However this land is disjoint, with Centennial High School occupying the land between the original park and its 61 acre (247,000 m²) extension. The original park was founded in 1959 for $161,809 and contains a large public swimming pool

Swimming pool

A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...

 with waterslides, picnic

Picnic

In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...

 pavilions, two baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 fields, the Children's Prairie Farm, and an extensive network of trails through the wooded parkland. An extension to the park was made to include two public tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 courts and a volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

 court just north of the park and adjacent to Centennial High School. Later more land was added to the system north of Centennial High School which includes an additional baseball field, a softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

field, and several administrative buildings for the Park District.

Minor parks

• Hessel Park, 26.9 acres (108,860.438 meters²) of land obtained by the city in 1918, contains a free children's water park run by the city as well as a perimeter path totaling 0.6 mile (0.965604 km).

• Eisner Park, sandwiched between Church and University on the city's west side, boasts 2 age-appropriate playgrounds, ball courts, and a baseball diamond. A rec center building also sits on this property.

CLARK PARK, is Bound by S. McKinley Ave., W. Daniel St,, & W. Charles St.
Obtained 1909 3.4 Acres Donors John S. Clark, Samuel P. Atkinson
It is a great neighborhood park with a modern playground, tennis, basketball, memorial rock garden and water element.