Garden City, Kansas: World's Largest Outdoor Municipal Concrete Swimming Pool

Wanted to add that in the past, after swimming season and before they drained the water, they would let the elephants from the zoo bathe. Oh what a sight to see.

Bigger than a football field, "The Big Pool" holds 2.2 million gallons of water, and is big enough for water-skiing. It was originally hand-dug in 1922. During the Great Depression a bathhouse was added by the Works Progress Administration. Farmers used horse-drawn scrapers to enlarge the pool during that time. The Big Pool has fifty-meter Olympic swimming lanes, three water slides, a zero entry depth kiddie pool, shade umbrellas, picnic tables, and everything else you'd expect from a modern swimming pool. It also has a minimum of fourteen lifeguards, two slide assistants, three admission clerks, two concession workers and a pool manager on duty each day. Maximum headcount on a busy day is 2,000 people.

The Big Pool is co-located in 110-acre Finnup Park with Finney County Museum and Lee Richardson Zoo, with over 300 animals representing 110 species. It is also just a few miles from the Buffalo Game Preserve, with one of the largest herds of bison in the world. For many years The Big Pool was advertised far and wide as "The World's Largest, Free, Outdoor, Municipal, Concrete Swimming Pool". To pay for all the improvements in recent years, the pool is no longer free, but at $1 per person ($2 if you want to use the water slides) this pool is great family fun at a heck of a deal.

You've really got to see The Big Pool with water in it, so come during the Summertime. If you're driving through Southwest Kansas, believe me, you're going to need somewhere to stop - this is the place!