Flat Branch Park

This story is dedicated to James T. Scott.  I will explain his story at the end of this one.

Flat Branch Park is Columbia's best kept secret and the most underutilized park in the city.  It is fabulous. Located in the heart of downtown in "The District" it has much potential and shows what can happen when a community starts to uncover streams and use them as a resource, such as a green space, and develop the area properly.

 The Flat Branch park has much potential - especially for future establishments which are built purposefully to adjoin it.  We could have our own mini River Walk. It  has lots of parking, a small water park for kids, and free wifi.

I started in the middle and walked north.

Kind of a nice mix between the urban industrial and the pastoral.

This is the spray park although it is off for now as we leave the summer season.

The MKT trail branches off into the park.

It gets a little seedy here at the north end where I turned around.  Lots of graffiti and a homeless hangout.  You can see here where Flat Branch Creek disappears under Broadway

I walked back from around this point heading south ending up to the connection under Providence Road to the MKT trail.

Heavy rain Saturday caused the small creek to rise over the trails on the underpasses.  

From this point I am going back through where I started now heading toward the Mizzou campus.

Going in.

Going out.

At this point the trail parallels Providence road on the right and the Mizzou campus on the left.

That is providence road directly above my head here.

Starting to turn around and head north back to the main park area.

Old railroad that must have been part of a bridge or some other structure.

Back at the parking lot where I started.

This is a beautiful area.  Like all urban areas I would stay away from the seedy parts or visit them only when accompanied by others during the day.  Otherwise stay in the areas, which is most of the park, that is visible and usually crowded.  This facility is close to the Mizzou campus and the downtown area including lots of great places to eat or visit with friends, with great shopping just a little bit further away.  Our local mosque is right there too.  Columbia needs, and is developing, more space like this.  It is a wonderful thing.

In Memoriam

I promised I would explain at the end of this story the story of James T. Scott. 

Years ago my Grandfather Mordica (Americanized version of Mordecai) used to tell me the story of this lynching but I was never 100% sure that it was true.  I certainly did not want it to be true.  But, when I was writing this I decided to do a search and see what I could find out and I found a story written just days ago that was published in the Missourian.   

Mr. Scott, born 1887 was an African American man who was lynched in this area in 1923 by a mob of about 1000 people who broke him out of the county jail and hung him on the railroad bridge at Stewart road.  He was 36 years of age. The railroad used to run parallel to Providence road and there was this underpass to the railroad that you drove down and under.  That is where the lynching occurred.  Mr. Scott is buried in the Columbia Cemetery within yards of George Barkwell who is the man who was tried and acquitted of the lynching.  Death makes bedfellows of us all.

Grandpa I believed you but I just  hoped the story you told me somehow wasn't really true.

I think we owe Mr. Scott a nicer headstone and I am going to see what I can do about that.

For more information:

An outstanding story by the Columbia Business Times written when the development of the area was just starting to gather momentum:  http://www.columbiabusinesstimes.com/723/2007/11/03/flat-branch-creek-of-dreams/

The Missourian story about the lynching of Mr. Scott:  http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/09/12/local-man-tries-change-death-certificate-lynched-man/

More history of the Flat Branch area from a doctoral thesis:  http://www.columbiaheartbeat.com/2008/10/bottomlands-geography-of-inequality-in.html