Point Mallard Park is a park located in Decatur, Alabama, United States that sits on 500 acres (2.0 km2) of the Flint Creek shoreline. Flint Creek is a tributary of the nearby Tennessee River. The park, portions of which are open year-round, borders the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and is operated by the City of Decatur Parks and Recreation Board. It is positioned in the city's far southeasternmost section. The park was named after a frequent avian visitor to the Wildlife Refuge. Point Mallard Park's J. Gilmer Blackburn Aquatic Center was developed after Gilmer Blackburn, mayor of Decatur from 1962 to 1968, saw enclosed "wave-making" swimming pools in Germany and thought one could be developed as a tourist attraction in the United States for his city. J. Austin Smith, an Ohio pool manufacturer, worked with the City of Decatur to design the pool. In 1967 the Point Mallard Authority was formed with the intent of creating a new park built around the aquatic attraction without the use of city tax revenue. The land where the park is now located was previously occupied by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for industrial use. The city issued $3.8 million in bonds for the initial cost of the park, and construction began in September 1969. The park opened on August 8, 1970 with the wave pool, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and a public golf course. Decatur, along with Big Surf in Tempe, Arizona, claims to have built the nation's first wave pool (something the city boasted about in Point Mallard promotional materials for many years), but Big Surf's is actually the older of the two, opening in the summer of 1969. For reasons unknown, no other wave pools were constructed in the nation for another 11 years. The campground was constructed a few years later in 1972, and the open-air ice rink was opened in 1973, a rare occurrence of such a facility in an outdoor southern climate. More information...
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