OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — From a 50-foot quarry, to a landfill, to a community park, Quarry Park on Knapp Street in Oshkosh has undergone many changes. Now, a recently approved park master plan paves the way for the park’s future.
- The Quarry Park Neighborhood Association worked with the city and a third party consultant to craft the master plan
- The total project is expected to cost $500,000 and take 10-20 years to be completed
- The plan adds paths, community seating, native vegetation and musical playground equipment to the space
Right now, there are two soccer nets and a few trees sitting at Quarry Park off Knapp Street and Florida Avenue on the south side of Oshkosh.
“It’s kind of sad to just see this space sitting here, unused,” Connie Drexler, a resident of the Quarry Park Neighborhood and an active member of the neighborhood association, said.
The area was a quarry in the 1800s, then a sanitary landfill, before the city covered it in the mid-1900s.
Today, there are many divots in the grass where the ground has started to sink into the buried landfill.
“Quarry Park has been inactive, empty for quite a while,” Drexler said.
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Over the past year and a half, the Quarry Park Neighborhood Association has assisted the City in crafting a park master plan. The neighborhood association received a Great Neighborhoods Grant to complete the plan.
“The neighborhood this side of South Park doesn’t really have any kind of green space or a gathering space,” Drexler said.
The master plan, which was approved by the Oshkosh City Council last week, lays out a $500,000 beautification project.
The plan would add new walking paths, community seating and large, playground-style musical instruments.
“It's more of a passive recreation site due to the underground landfill and the history there,” Ray Maurer, Oshkosh parks director, said. “There's going to be limited excavation, limited things to do, as far as penetrating the ground. There are certain restrictions that we've discussed with the Department of Natural Resources, and we need to be careful that we don't expose the landfill or anything underneath.”
Some neighbors in the area expressed a bit of apprehension of the master plan, particularly the musical instruments, the impact of the sinking ground and the lack of playground equipment included in the plan.
“I think it’s good that they’re doing something, I’m just not sure about the ground,” Barb DuVall, who lives nearby, said. “I liked it, I thought it was maybe a little odd. I’m not quite understanding what they’re doing with the music.”
Still, most people say some sort of attention to the space will be beneficial to the neighborhood.
“It’s kind of cool to be able to have this become beautiful again,” Drexler said.
Maurer said they hope to receive $50,000 in the Oshkosh 2026 City Budget to start the project next year. He said they’ll begin by putting in more walking paths.
