In a rural West Texas community of about 3,000 people, something remarkable happened. District 1876, a brand-new destination park, opened its gates, and more visitors showed up than the town’s entire population.
That turnout tells you everything you need to know about what this project means to the area.
A Community That Had Nothing Like This Before
For families in this corner of West Texas, the nearest destination park with any real scale used to mean a long drive. There simply wasn’t a destination park anywhere nearby. Kids grew up without a hometown gathering place to call their own: somewhere to climb, splash, run, and gather with friends, until District 1876 became that place.
Funding a project of this size is rarely simple, we work with communities at every budget level and stage of the park development journey, from early planning through final installation. KDC Associates was brought in to lead the design and Exerplay was honored to be considered as the playground design and installation partner, supporting the project with shade structures, water play, playground equipment, and playground turf surfacing. It’s the kind of partnership we love most: a whole team of people, each bringing their own piece, working toward one shared vision for a town.
Built to Last, Built to Gather
District 1876 isn’t just a playground and splash pad, it’s a full destination park, complete with an amphitheater that’s already hosting community events. The entire play structure comes from our Forma product line, giving the park a bold, innovative look unlike anything else in the region, with inclusive play features designed so kids of all abilities can play side by side. West Texas sun and heat aren’t an afterthought here either. Shade structures were engineered specifically for this climate, so the park stays usable and comfortable for families well beyond a cool spring morning.
A Small Town Community Hub
When District 1876 officially opened, families didn’t just come from town. They came from every surrounding community for miles around, drawn by the promise of something their community had never seen before. The turnout exceeded the town’s own population, filling the park with laughter, music, and the kind of joy that only comes when a community finally gets the gathering place it’s been waiting for. And it’s not slowing down. Between playground and splash pad visits, plus amphitheater events, District 1876 has quickly become a small-town community hub, the kind of place where neighbors run into each other and new memories are made every weekend. Our work here didn’t end at the ribbon cutting either. We build every playground, splash pad and shade structure as a lifelong partnership, offering value and partnership that lasts decades, not years. Staying connected to support the equipment and the community long after the grand opening, is something we take pride in.
Where Kids Discover a New Kind of Play
Walk through District 1876 on any given afternoon and you’ll see the equipment doing exactly what it was designed to do: get kids moving, thinking, and playing together in new ways.
Climbers and net structures challenge kids to problem-solve their way to the top, building balance, coordination, and confidence with every route they figure out. Spinners and rockers turn into instant group activities, with kids taking turns and calling out who’s next. Water play elements invite the kind of open-ended, imaginative play that keeps kids engaged for hours, splashing, chasing, and inventing games as they go.
And because the park brings so many different play experiences together in one place, it naturally mixes ages and abilities. Older kids show younger ones how the equipment works, stepping into a bit of leadership without even realizing it. Siblings play side by side instead of on separate ends of a park. Parents find a bench in the shade and watch it all unfold with a smile.
That’s the real magic of a destination playground like this one. It’s not just equipment. It’s the place where a town’s kids are making their first friends outside of school, working out how to take turns, and building the kind of independence that comes from figuring things out on their own, all while having the time of their lives.
A Model for Communities of Any Size
District 1876 is a big park with a big story, but the same partnership approach applies whether a community is planning a destination park or a smaller neighborhood playground. From rural towns to growing cities, Exerplay works alongside foundations, school districts, and municipalities across Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, West Texas, Alaska and Hawaii, bringing playground projects like this one to life, tailored to each community’s scale, budget, and vision.
