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Friday, November 13, 2026Nov 13

East Ridge commemorates 30th anniversary of Pioneer Frontier Park, opens time capsule

Staff photo by Abby White / Debbie Colburn, coordinator for the park project, hands out letters to relatives and friends of those who wrote them on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. East Ridge celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Pioneer Frontier Park with a ceremonial opening of the time capsule placed when the park opened.
Staff photo by Abby White / Debbie Colburn, coordinator for the park project, hands out letters to relatives and friends of those who wrote them on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. East Ridge celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Pioneer Frontier Park with a ceremonial opening of the time capsule placed when the park opened. Staff photo by Abby White / Debbie Colburn, coordinator for the park project, hands out letters to relatives and friends of those who wrote them on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. East Ridge celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Pioneer Frontier Park with a ceremonial opening of the time capsule placed when the park opened.

EAST RIDGE – As children played and hollered at Pioneer Frontier Park, a crowd of a couple dozen gathered just steps away to commemorate the park’s 30th anniversary.

Opened on Nov. 14, 1994, Pioneer Frontier Park came together due to the work of East Ridge parents and residents, who raised funds and gathered resources for the project and built the park themselves, East Ridge Community Center Supervisor Hannah Spear said during the anniversary ceremony.

At Thursday’s ceremony, held 30 years to the date of the park’s opening, some of those who had a hand in the park’s creation were among the assembled crowd, touched by time and joined by their children and grandchildren. Spear read off names of those “who are no longer with us” to honor their contributions.

“This was entirely a community project,” Spear said in her remarks.

Building the park was a labor of love, Debbie Colburn, general coordinator for the park project, said during the ceremony.