Rogers Family Park

Access to Rogers Family Park during the Winslow-Rogers Resurfacing Project

The north parking lot and entrance to Rogers Family Park, and the Winslow-High-Rogers roundabout, will be temporarily closed to vehicle traffic during the City of Bloomington Engineering Department's Winslow-Rogers resurfacing project.

The roundabout is open to pedestrian traffic. Visitors may park at Childs Elementary School, 2211 S. High St., and use the sidepath to access Rogers Family Park and the Jackson Creek Trail. Parking is also available at Sherwood Oaks Park and at Olcott Park.

The 31.5-acre "goat farm" property was donated to the Bloomington Parks Foundation by the Sherman Rogers family in 2007 with the provision that it be used for publicly accessible recreation and greenspace. The park is home to a barn and silo (not open to the public) and a five-acre restored native prairie.

Parking

Paver-surface vehicle parking, with six vehicle spaces + four designated accessible parking spaces, is available at the north side of Rogers Family Park (entrance to Rogers Family Park is at the south exit of the Winslow-High-Rogers roundabout).

Asphalt-surface vehicle parking, with approximately 14 vehicle spaces, is available at Sherwood Oaks Park, 1600 E. Elliston Dr. Access to the Jackson Creek Trail and Rogers Family Park is available via a 200' concrete sidewalk leading east from the parking area. Sherwood Oaks Park is .6 miles south of the Rogers Family Park trailhead of the Jackson Creek Trail, and .6 miles north of Rhorer Road.

A .23-mile, asphalt-surface trail crosses Jackson Creek via a pedestrian bridge and connects Rogers Family Park and Sherwood Oaks Park with Olcott Park, 2300 E. Canada Dr. Asphalt-surface vehicle parking, with 46 vehicle spaces + three designated accessible vehicle parking spaces, is located at Olcott Park. 

Restrooms / Drinking Water

There are no restroom facilities at Rogers Family Park. The nearest park restroom facility is located at Olcott Park, approximately one mile from the Rogers Family Park north parking lot along the asphalt surface Jackson Creek Trail. There is a drinking fountain, available seasonally, at Sherwood Oaks Park on the Jackson Creek Trail between the playground and tennis courts, and at the northwest corner of the Sherwood Oaks Park tennis courts.

Bus Line

Bloomington Transit #5 stops at Jackson Creek Middle School, at the intersection of East Rogers Road and The Stands, and at Childs Elementary School. 

Public Art

A public art piece titled "FLEET/ing" by local artist Jonathan Racek was selected by the Bloomington Arts Commission for installation at Rogers Family Park. The art piece is constructed of powder-coated steel tubes and brackets and stands 12 feet wide, 18 ½ feet long, and 10 feet high. The piece is "nimble and quick in its simplified movement and a comment on the transient nature of life, growth and decay depicted in a gradient of colors."

Rogers Family Park Dedication - August 2023

The Parks and Recreation Department hosted a dedication and ribbon cutting in August 2023 to celebrate the completion of the Rogers Family Park project (formerly known as Goat Farm Park). The improvements to the park, including new walking paths and boardwalks, a permeable paver parking lot, new seating areas, and exterior improvements to the barn. All the improvements were all made possible by a generous donation from the Sherman and Meredith Rogers Family. The donation also commissioned a new piece of public art by Jonathan Racek titled 'FLEET/ing', which is located east of the barn. 

2022 Improvements – Rogers Family Park project

In addition to donating the property, the Rogers Family donated an additional $1 million dollars in 2021 and 2022 to fund improvements to the park. The Parks and Recreation Department worked with Mader Design to design improvements to the park that align with the park’s original purpose of providing publicly accessible recreation and greenspace.

About a dozen people attended a public meeting in April 2021 to provide feedback on preliminary design concepts, and in November 2021 the final design concepts were presented at an open house at the park.

In August 2022, a construction contract totaling $643,460 was awarded to Scenic Construction Services at the Board of Park Commissioners meeting. A separate $110,000 contract was awarded to make exterior repairs to the barn and silo, including new roof, siding, soffit, and gutters. At the completion of construction in spring 2023, the park was rededicated as Rogers Family Park. The project included:

• As part of the overall goal of preserving the park as passive, natural space, no overhead or parking lot lighting will be installed.
• The creation of a 10-spot permeable paver parking lot on the north end of the park, accessible from the Winslow-High-Rogers roundabout to increase public access to the park.
• A more than five-acre expansion of the native prairie to the south. This will require mowing and killing existing vegetation, which includes invasive species, to reestablish native plants through reseeding.
• Barn and silo exterior improvements.
• The creation of a new paved trail from the parking lot that will extend south through the prairie, traveling through a central greenspace area that will include highlighted native plantings. Trail improvements will also include a new boardwalk on the southwestern side of the park and a connection on the northeastern side of the park to complete a loop trail.
• Additional seating areas, including under a new picnic shelter and trellis and under an improved eastern eave of the barn.
• The installation of a new public art sculpture near the barn by local artist Jonathan Racek titled “FLEET/ing.”

Native Prairie & Ecological Preservation

In 2016, the Bloomington Environmental Commission asked the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department to consider creating a native prairie planting at one of its properties. A prairie that includes a diversity of plant species is beneficial to pollinators, or animals that move pollen from one part of the flower of a plant to another part. Common pollinator species include bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, spiders, flies, and wasps.

In 2017, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the first five-acre section of native prairie replaced a field of fescue on the north end of the property. Since then, the prairie has been managed through the removal of woody plants and invasive species and periodic mowing. A five-acre expansion of the native prairie was planned as part of the Rogers Family Park improvement project in 2022.

In addition to the native prairie, the park provides multiple benefits for wildlife. Chimney swift and bluebird boxes provide nesting habitat, and prairie plants help strain flood debris and improve water quality in Jackson Creek. The Parks and Recreation Department also uses best management practices to maintain the protective vegetation on the banks of Jackson Creek, which runs along the eastern edge of the property.