We arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the late afternoon in August. After a quick dinner, we visited the Sunken Gardens, a Lincoln attraction since the 1930s. The Golden Hour was just beginning as we entered the garden, so most of the images here are tinged with late afternoon sunlight. Looking around, we discovered plenty of other people with the same idea to walk in the garden on a beautiful evening.

During the winter of 1930-31, an abandoned dump site was recycled as part of a Depression-era city program for unemployed workers. Originally called the “Rock Garden,” the fountains and structures were terraced on 1.5 acres of land donated by local families. By the spring of 1931, the Gardens were in full bloom and open to the public.

I chose to take only my cell phone for this walk in the gardens, maybe expecting something less of an attraction than we found it to be. The Lincoln Sunken Gardens is a beautiful park with landscaped flower beds, ponds with koi fish, and water features.

The large pond has many koi, but the boys sitting on its edge appeared to be more interested in a game they were playing. This image is a two-image panorama created in Adobe Lightroom, which explains the slight curvature of the pond’s cement wall. Almost all the photos were sent into Adobe Photoshop to remove many people enjoying the park that evening.

Two water features parallel two stair sets that transition down the terraced layers. The edges of the stairs are visible at the upper left and right corners of this panoramic image. I used pro mode to slow down the shutter speed of my S23U Samsung cell phone to blur the water in the falls.

Since there were so many large flower beds, I captured more images than usual to create panoramic shots. The photo above shows how the beds are terraced as the elevation changes to the lowest level of the garden.

This large Canna photo is probably my favorite of the day’s walk. It’s a beautiful plant showing off well in the golden light at the end of the day.

This canna was so large that I created a two-image vertical panorama to include the colorful ground cover below the plant.

There are several works of art in the garden at different levels. “Reveille” depicts a life-sized angel blowing a trumpet and was cast in Italy. The word Reveille means ‘a signal to wake people from sleep’. Wayne Southwick modeled the woman in the sculpture after his wife, Ann Seacrest Southwick, as she would wake their children every morning and get them out of bed.

The sculpture in this photo is called “Inspiration,” and it was created by artist Mary Ann Luhan in 2017. It depicts a young girl kneeling on the ground and drawing on a slate with a stylus. The plaque on the pedestal reads:

“Inspiration” 2017 Artist: Mary Ann Luhan In Loving Memory of Beatrice “Bea” Sisson With a Wish to Inspire and Educate Young Spirits Erected in the Heartland with the Lincoln Community Her Grateful Family

We had a wonderful visit and walk through the park on a beautiful evening. More images are here on my Flickr site in 2K HD. The gardens are in a neighborhood near Antelope Park, not too far from the exit to U.S. 77 on I-80. They are open daily from 5:00 AM to 11:00 PM and are free to visit. Free parking is available, and the gardens are wheelchair accessible and dog-friendly.

John Steiner