Though most of us are aware of damage done in residential areas of Fort Scott to homes and vehicles, we may not have considered the damage done to other structures within the city. One of the harder hit areas of town seems to be along Burke Street, which is very near one of Fort Scott’s most beautiful attractions–Gunn Park. Though at first glance the park may look undamaged, a closer look reveals some destruction.

Most notably, several of the newer playground structures were damaged, rendering them unusable and unsafe. Thankfully the city quickly took notice of the safety hazard and placed a temporary fence and warning signs around each of the damaged playground areas.

One of the structures by the 2nd lake actually has a large hole in the slide portion of the play area, which shows just how forcefully the hail came down during the storm.

In addition, several shelter house roofs have been damaged, most notably the roof of the Fern Lake shelter house.

The good news is that the city seems to have put new metal roofs on quite a few shelter houses already, including one of the historic shelter houses by the 2nd lake which was built by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.

The photo below shows a plaque commemorating the efforts of the Works Progress Administration and the City of Fort Scott during the Great Depression.

Other familiar sights at the park, such as the old grills, have escaped damage from the storm. Perhaps the old saying, “They don’t make things like they used to” is true in this case!