Latest News
Stories: Zack Meaders Guess
Zack Meaders Guess shares his memories of Overton Park, a place his son Noah Guess cares for as the owner of Echo Systems Inc., the park’s landscaping team. You can submit your own park memories at overtonpark.org/stories. This is written in April 2021. In a few days I will be eighty years old. I was […]
NatureZen: The Dragonfly Olympics
words and photos by Melissa McMasters A few weeks ago, I participated in a global community-science project called the Odolympics, named for Odonata, the taxonomic order containing dragonflies and damselflies. Like the Great Backyard Bird Count or a BioBlitz, the Odolympics harnesses the time and energy of regular naturalists like you and me to create a snapshot […]
In memory of George E. Cates
This week our hearts are heavy with the loss of one of Overton Park Conservancy’s visionary founders, George E. Cates. Anyone who remembers the Overton Park of ten years ago will understand just how profoundly George’s dream of a beautiful, safe, and welcoming park for all Memphians has been realized. The outpouring of memories and tributes is a testament to how many […]
Stories: Bill Colton
Park supporter Bill Colton generously shares his memories of Overton Park with us today. If you’d like to share your Overton Park story, click here. When I was 10 (insert Civil War jokes here if you must, though the year was 1961), most city parks and many schools had young men and women, mostly college-age, […]
NatureZen: Happy Bee Day to You
Words and photos by Melissa McMasters Today is World Bee Day, an international effort to convey the importance of bees to our food systems and to the diversity of life on our planet. One of every three bites of food we eat is dependent on bees, and their numbers are declining worldwide. The plight of […]
NatureZen: The Elusive Indigo Bunting
Today’s guest post is by Steve Adelman, a writer who is an up-and-coming outdoorsman after living the majority of his life in major cities. He can be found most Sunday mornings at Overton Park with his wife, Michele, and their dog, Milton. I had never really thought much about birds, barely aware of their presence […]
Restrooms and rentals update
Park Restrooms The restrooms at the East Parkway Pavilion are set to reopen this Saturday, May 1. The Rainbow Lake Pavilion plumbing suffered a good deal of damage during its COVID hiatus, requiring extensive repairs. While we are in the City plumbing queue, those restrooms will remain closed. In the meantime, we’ll be installing portable […]
Time to stay off the golf course!
Those big piles of dirt are about to look a whole lot greener! This week marks the beginning of “sprigging” the renovated Overton Park golf course. Both fairways and greens are getting new grass over the next week or two, which will have the course ready for a fall re-opening after several months of irrigation […]
NatureZen: Connecting Our Hearts to Nature
In part one of our Earth Day series, Melissa shared how naming what she sees in nature helped her develop a deep connection to conservation. In part two, Fields offers another way of connecting, one that centers the joyful experience of being a part of the environment. Connecting Our Hearts to Nature Fields Falcone, Conservancy […]
NatureZen: How A Name Can Spark a Connection
Today people around the world celebrate Earth Day, an observation created in 1970 to show global support for protecting the environment. As supporters of Overton Park Conservancy, we know that you feel a deep connection to environmental protection. In a two-part #NatureZen, Melissa and Fields explore some of the ways that connection is created and […]