A celebration is set for the return of a scenic site in Colorado Springs.

Officials have scheduled a ribbon cutting for 11 a.m. Oct. 30 at Duck Lake, the restored body of water along the greenway in Monument Valley Park.

The occasion will mark the culmination of “a significant investment,” according to the event’s billing, “to restore and enhance one of the city’s most historic and scenic park spaces.”

For years it was not a lake seen, but rather a grimy pit or puddle — an “eye sore,” Teri Peisner with the Friends of Monument Valley Park has said. Now entering the park along Glen Avenue, one sees a new path encircling the water, with an island in the center and bordering stonework mimicking the Works Progress Administration.

Duck Lake’s island and rock matches the scene just south along the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail: the larger Shadow Lake, which was reborn in 2023. Together, the waters “really increase the appeal of Monument Valley Park,” Peisner said in a previous interview.

And they recall the early history of the “park for the people,” as city founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer knew the downtown-adjacent preserve to be, deeded in 1907.

Before then, plans showed four lakes for the park. Two were destroyed by the major flood of 1935 and two were restored, only to languish amid drought and Parks Department funding woes in the decades to come.

The restoration of Shadow and Duck lakes were budgeted at a total $2.4 million — largely from retained revenues under the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), with more funds from the city’s Trails, Open Space and Parks program, Lyda Hill Philanthropies and Friends of Monument Valley Park.

Along with the “significant investment” to revive Shadow and Duck lakes, the Parks Department’s capital projects coordinator has recognized costs to maintain them — potentially tens of thousands of gallons of water and hundreds of dollars monthly.

“We don’t have a blank check, but this park is important,” Jake Butterfield said in a previous interview. “I just think it’s important to keep these historic places beautiful. This was given to us by our founder, and we have to continue to honor his vision and the vision of our town, and these elements do that.”

Duck Lake is a short distance north along the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail from the parking lot near the Horticultural Art Society’s demonstration garden (222 Mesa Road). Shadow Lake is reached south along the trail from there.