John Adams and John Adams Park

Ken Bott
Dec 1
2 min read

John Adams was born in Fairview, Franklin County, ID in 1878. He married Leuvenia Bishop in 1907 and they lived in Riverdale, ID until moving to Blue Creek in 1911. John was a rancher, livestock raiser, and wheat grower and maintained ranches in the Promontory and Blue Creek areas. The couple moved to Brigham City in 1919 and built a beautiful home at 176 North Main Street.

John had a big, red barn that he kept on some property in Brigham City and raised and trained Palamino horses as a hobby. He called the barn the “Horse Country Club.” John produced rodeos in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada and also hosted them where John Adams Park now stands. John was noted as having the land and building the barn in Brigham City so that his friends could have a place to keep and ride horses. He and his trained horses would put on a show for people at different events. In 1936, John was chosen as Grand Marshal for the annual Peach Days event. He died in 1961 and his wife, Leuvenia, donated this property in northeast Brigham City (one article mentions 1.83 acres and another 2.1) for a park in 1968.

John Adams Park: The original design was for 14 acres and was anticipated to have tennis courts, a rose garden, a “tot” area playground, family shelters, barbecues, open play areas, and groves of trees. Olof Zundel was the mayor of Brigham City for this undertaking and Howard Kelly was the Parks Superintendent. For Arbor Day, 1969, approximately 270 students from Box Elder High School planted about 200 trees on the property. The park was dedicated on July 4, 1969 along with a patriotic program. In October 1970, the construction of a bridge over the Box Elder Creek was approved. In 1971, students from the Intermountain School welded together swings from materials supplied by the Brigham City Ladies Community Club. The tennis courts were eventually added and dedicated as part of the Peach Days celebration on 9/11/1976. Two “locomotives” that were built to resemble the meeting of the railroads in Promontory were added to the park and were officially donated on May 10, 1977, the anniversary of the driving of the golden spike. In November of that same year, a “rocket” was added as a nod to Brigham City’s close ties with the space industry. Both the rocket and the locomotives were made possible by a community improvement project by the Ladies Community club for the bicentennial celebrations.

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