Russian Jack Springs Park

Russian Jack Springs Park is a public park located in Anchorage, Alaska, managed by the Municipality of Anchorage. The park is named for Jacob "Russian Jack" Marunenko.[1] The park comprises two quarter-sections, minus road rights-of-way, covering approximately 300 acres (120 ha). DeBarr Road, a major east–west arterial road in Anchorage, bisects the park.

View of the fledgling park in 1959. Due to the prison farm which operated on the same tract of land, recreational uses were limited at the time to day camping (shown here) and picnicking.

The land for the park was transferred to the municipality of Anchorage by the Bureau of Land Management in 1948 and it was initially used as a minimum security prison farm.[2]

It was the site of four murders by Charles L. Meach in 1982. Three years later, three elderly people were murdered by a teenaged couple in a secluded residential neighborhood approximately 250 feet (76 m) south of the park's border.

References
  1. "Marunenko, Jacob "Russian Jack" | Alaska History".
  2. Deb Vanasse (2007). "Insiders' Guide to Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska, 2nd: Including the Kenai Peninsula, Prince William Sound, and Denali National Park". Morris Book Publishing. Page 82.

61°12′25″N 149°47′14″W


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