Where it all Began...
Roswell New Mexico had no reason to ignore the phenomenon of space themed playgrounds and equipment emerging in the 1950's
Honoring the Roots of Roswell NM
Having a legacy of significant advancements in rocketry through Robert H. Goddard in 1932 as well and the infamous “1947 UFO crash” ...
It was only fitting to acquire a beautifully themed rocket slide to honor the father of American rocketry and appeal to the masses of children who would pretend to launch into space and slide onto the moon.
Sping River PArk and Zoo aka peppermint park
The History of the Roswell Rocket
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The Rocket Era
From the 1950s until the late 1970s, similar slides were widely used.
Less than ten of them are still in use in American towns, since production of them ceased in the 1980s.
The Roswell Rocket slide was constructed almost seven decades ago and is one of very few remaining like it in the entire world.
The city made repairs throughout the years, but in 2018 it made the decision to close it permanently due to being outside of code threatening it with the same fate of the other metal slides.
THE "Scorcher"
Josh Berry, like most people who grew up in Roswell, has happy recollections of the slide, which he used to refer to as "the scorcher" because of how hot it would be on the way down
Berry was very familiar with the slide because he played on it when he visited the park as a child and grew up nearby.
"I spent birthdays there and summers there; my friends and I went there"
Is it the end... or beginning?
Many believed that this chapter of Roswell's history, at least as it was known, may had ended. Many locals who had grown up playing on the popular rocket slide at Spring River Park and Zoo were bewildered when it was closed, they didn't want it to wind up in a graveyard among other abandoned playground equipment.
Somewhere in town, they hoped to polish it up and put it on display for visitors and locals.
“We want to celebrate what it’s been for the community. Tens, and maybe hundreds of thousands of childhood memories associated with that rocket,”
Jacob Roebuck
Because so many people connected with it, and because Berry loved rockets and all things retro, he and former city councilor Jacob Roebuck came up with the idea to turn it into a sculpture.
“Since they can’t slide down it anymore, maybe they can take their kids to it. And see it, and enjoy it, and reminisce, and take pictures and selfies and what have you,” Berry said.
Operation Rescue Rocket put into place
Resurrecting a Community and Historical Icon