Phoenix Trotter Park- "Land of the Creeps"

Adventures at Trotter Park in Goodyear Arizona.

I wished this was ice so I could lay down and cool off. It was just shards of glass.

It's a sign of the times she said.

Good thing we are skinny ass bitches. We bent the metal poles and climbed thru to the unknown land of Bird Poop City. We didn't really bend the poles, they were already bent.

So many birds come here to end their life of flight. This one lost his head.

There was so much bird shit. 3" to 5" thick. It smelled weird in there and i'm sure i'm going to start growing wings soon.

Janet and I ventured over to the abandoned Phoenix Trotter Park Saturday. It was about 114 degrees out but we managed to survive. ""The track -- Phoenix Trotting Park -- opened in 1965. It was originally supposed to be built for $3 million, but after Italian architects and contractors were brought in it wound up closer to $10 million, essentially bankrupting its builder, James Dunnigan, who had operated Buffalo Raceway. It was built of reinforced concrete, and could have withstood a direct hit by a hydrogen bomb. Delvin Miller, harness racing's Mr. Everything, implored Dunnigan to forego building a track, and instead workout a deal with Turf Paradise to install lights for a million or so and race harness nights at that thoroughbred track. That advice, feasible at the time, could have resulted in harness racing today in Phoenix. Instead, Phoenix Trotting Park went belly up and was bought by Sportservice, to make sure no reincarnation took place and its greyhound operation in Phoenix was protected. It is still standing, and some future travelers from space probably will regard it in the same way Stonehenge in Britain is regarded today......a monument built in the desert by sun worshipers. Sad story from start to finish. As for pix, horse magazines of 1965 or Phoenix papers of that date probably would have them, and Harness Racing Museum in Goshen, NY --845-294-6330 -- is most logical source, or perhaps Phoenix Historical Society."

Michigan horseman, Dean Fileccia added the following:
"I was fortunate enough to winter train at the Phoenix track the winter of 82-83. It was intended to be a premier facility but placement and the weather didn't help their cause. I understand from talking to some of the residents, that not only were the roads not adequate being 20 mile out of town for the expected traffic, but when they had scheduled the meet was the time of year that they had drenching rains causing washouts and impossible to cross floods. The facility is entirely built from poured concrete as are all of the barns. The barn sections were poured on the ground and lifted into place after setting. There were two tracks, the main 5/8ths and a mile training track which we used. I understand that the facility is still in use but for show horses. I don't believe that the grandstand can ever be used. Over the years the facing, which was about two feet thick had separated from the main portion. I was told it would cost more to fix than to replace. It was eerie going through the deserted grandstand, we ran across old tickets from the original meet and old money sacks. ".." from here
They filmed "No Code of Conduct" there and blew ALL the windows out. Thus killing thousands of birds that made the abandoned building their home. Sad...You can see it being blown up in the last min's of this youtube clip