Buxton Park Arboretum in Indianola, Iowa, began as the city’s first park after a gift from the Buxton family in nineteen oh five or nineteen oh six and later became one of a dozen city parks. Early on, it had few built features, but custodian John Hessling planted many of the trees that shaped its character. Over time it developed into a formal botanical garden and arboretum with a fountain, gazebo, flowerbeds, butterfly garden, children’s garden, and twenty-five types of trees on a self-guided walking tour. Despite a maintenance crisis in nineteen fifty-five, it endures as a public green space and community festival venue.