Glen Lake Rotary Park
Beginning in the early 1990s. Bozeman local volunteers began an ambitious process to rehabilitate a local gravel pit into a community park. Working thousands of hours themselves, with some assistance from city, county and state agencies, they turned over the task 'park building' to a fledgling new Rotary Club that just chartered in 1992.
Needing a signature community project, the members gladly accepted the challenge and began sculpting, cultivating and renovating the property.
With each passing year, as more members joined the club, more and more amenities were added to the park, now officially known as the East Gallatin Recreation Area. One large project was to rebuild the area surrounding the pond so a 'BEACH' was built with sand to attract more kids and families, thus the locals dubbed it 'Bozeman Beach' to help differentiate it from another park near the Gallatin Valley Mall known as Bozeman Pond.
The Bozeman community quickly took notice and appreciated all the new features being added. By 2009, a new restroom and outdoor shower building was added, soon followed by an outdoor patio, volleyball courts, climbing rock, diving and fishing dock.
By 2010, more and more community events began being hosted at the Park including triathlons, swim races, winter X-C events, community picnics, and of course, fishing derbys.
The Park has enjoyed support from many corporate sponsors, government entities, foundations, businesses and individual contributors, finally culminating in 2014 with the 'burning of the mortgage' celebration by the Sunrise Rotary Club in 2014 (seen below).
In early 2019, the State of Montana - through the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks department - officially turned over management of the Park to the City of Bozeman under a new 50-year lease agreement, and in the process. renamed the Park as Glen Lake Rotary Park which was also adopted by the City of Bozeman.
The new park name and temporary sign was erected May 19, 2019
Besides being known for Glen Lake, there are trails all around the property, maintained by the Gallatin Valley Land Trust. Lots of corporate events, family celebrations and non-profit events utilize the facilities.
Starting June of 2019, members from both Noon and Sunrise Rotary Clubs, prepare the new Centennial Project site.
Trench Digging of power line to the facility location
Club members prepare the pavilion foundation site for concrete (July 2019)
Foundation slab poured October 2019
Foundation ready Spring 2020
Placement of pavilion sections spring 2020
Final completed pavilion, signage and garden, August 2020
Beginning in 2015 with the Bozeman City Commission requesting that before too many new features were planned into the park master plan, they requested the club consider a 2nd entrance be built. After 8 long years of fundraising, planning, logistics, contract bidding, and finally construction being completed from May - August 2024, the new southeast entrance OPENED to the public on Friday August 16. A folder that visually documents the entire project is ON OUR FLICKR website page HERE
 Before project starts - end of temporary connector road, April 2024 |
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 Dignitaries, club members, partners and the road contractor dig the first dirt on-site to start the project, mid May 2024 |
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 Clearing topsoil to get ready for building a boulder and gravel road-base, late May 2024 |
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 Road base built, concrete curb and gutters put in place, and blacktop ready to lay down, late July 2024 |
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 Road completed and open for local traffic, August 16, 2024. Thank you to Highland Construction Services of Belgrade as the contractor of record. |