History and heatwave combine as Mill Creek Pool returns
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The July 8 reopening of Mill Creek Pool came just in time to offer people relief from extreme heatwaves, setting up a swift return to popularity for one of Edmonton's original and most missed outdoor pools.
"People were just thrilled that it was open and that they were back in their pool and thoroughly enjoying it," Shauna Graham, site coordination and operations supervisor for Edmonton's outdoor pools, told Taproot about the reopening. "I'm happy it's open, and it was perfect timing. If we had gotten that heat one week earlier people would have been banging on the door to be let in."
The City of Edmonton closed the Mill Creek Pool in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, following upon a 2018 decision to allocate money to refresh it. The closure allowed the city to update the pool's electrical and mechanical systems, and to renovate the pool itself.
The pool has been a fixture of Mill Creek Ravine for at least 70 years. It opened in 1953 and at the time cost $150,000. A swimming spot at the location dates back further, though, to 1917, when people dammed Mill Creek itself to make a spot to swim at. That pre-dates Edmonton's first public swimming pool, which opened in 1922 as South Side Pool but was renamed Queen Elizabeth Pool in 1939.
Graham said that Mill Creek Pool was long the favourite of residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods (Bonnie Doon, King Edward Park, Ritchie, and Mill Creek), and only started to lag behind when the city started renovating its other pools.
In 2009, the City of Edmonton updated Fred Broadstock Outdoor Pool, in Britannia Youngstown, redoing the dive tank, splash pool, and its entire basin. In 2011, the city moved Queen Elizabeth Pool from Queen Elizabeth Park Road (the current location of Indigenous Art Park ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞) to Kinsmen Park, where it's now located along with Kinsmen Spray Park. In 2018, the city opened Borden Natural Swimming Pool, also a site with a long history of a pool.
Graham said now that Mill Creek Pool has been renovated, it can return to popularity.
"It was the busiest for years and I think it was the place to go, right? Summer came and you wanted to go cool off or swim, it was a place to go and hang out. We're trying to ensure that we continue with that," Graham said.
