Tommy the Turtle of Bowie

23/05/2025

Happy World Turtle Day to Hetty of Palm Coast, FL, and her peers.

23/05/2024

Happy ! This big yellow beauty with outie handholds was recently installed in Mount Barker, South Australia.

Exploring Keith Stephenson Park Playground in Mount Barker. A newly updated playground offers it all – fully fenced, accessible equipment, lots of nature play, plenty of shade and toilets nearby. Review by Claire Davill The playground at Keith Stephenson Park sits in the large, lush green reserve ...

25/10/2023

100 years ago this week, Sebastian Hinton was granted a patent for the jungle gym.

The jungle gym: How a Winnetka invention taught an early lesson about risk and reward.

29/08/2023

Our Charlottesville cousin has moved off the main playground but is still in the park.

14/07/2023

Good news from the Kansas City area.

"Tommy the Turtle," a concrete play structure at Prairie Village's Harmon Park that dates back to the 1950s, is sticking around through planned park upgrades.

23/05/2023

If you visit Morden, Manitoba, be sure to see Archie the life-size Archelon on the west side of town. 2017 sculpture by Aldofo Cuetara et al.

25/04/2023

Cecil says hello from Atlanta!

Ever heard of a turtle tent? Meet Cecil. He’s just one of the many sculptures that help make our Goizueta Gardens so unique and inviting.

Created by American sculptor Milton Hebald in 1956 for Creative Playthings, the large Turtle Tent became a popular item in mid-20th-century playgrounds. Cecil was donated to Atlanta History Center in 2013 by Alice Wight McDonough. You can spot him in the Sims Asian Garden under the vibrant red and glowing orange fall foliage of our Japanese maple collection.

04/04/2023

Thorough reporting on the Turtles in DC by Elizabeth O'Gorek.

There are two Turtle Parks on the Hill --one near North Hall and another in Marion Park (that's its real name!) But what's the deal with these loved, concrete forms? | What’s Up With the Turtle Statue in Marion Park? https://www.hillrag.com/2023/03/14/whats-up-with-the-turtle-statue-in-marion-park

09/01/2023

Melbourne has a new playground, Rocks on Wheels by Mike Hewson. This Turtle wonders what roller skating is like.

New Zealand engineer Mike Hewson has raised eyebrows with his ‘risky play park’ in Melbourne. But the kids are voting with their feet

01/11/2022

Scarsdale, NY: A visitor to Heathcote School demonstrates a yoga pose on the Turtle. Photo courtesy of Susan B. Maes.

09/09/2022

A cultural landscape inventory of Marion Park in DC, home to one of us since 1964, identifies the turtle as a "character-defining feature" contributing to the 1962-70 "period of significance."

The Marion Park cultural landscape was first laid out in 1791 as an unassigned open reservation in Pierre L’Enfant’s plan for the city of Washington. Despite its proximity to the Capitol and the Navy Yard, the area around the cultural landscape remained largely undeveloped until the mid-19th cen...