Sometime after Labor Day, the deck at Kendrick Pool went quiet again for the year, the way it always does once the calendar turns. What made this closing different is what had been happening there all summer, and it wasn't only the three new water slides pulling in crowds of kids. It was the 7 a.m. lap swimmers, doing laps in warm water at an hour the old pool never opened its gates for, months into a season that used to start with everyone shivering through the first two weeks of June. That single change, heated water instead of whatever temperature the sky decided on, did more to reshape how Kendrick Park works than the ribbon cutting got credit for.
If you live near enough to walk there, you probably already know the pool got its makeover this year. What's less obvious is how much that makeover shifted the rhythm of the whole park, not just the fenced-in part with the deep end.
Eighty-Nine Years Before This Rebuild
Kendrick Pool has been a fixture since 1937, when Evelyn and Edward Moore built it and gave it to the city. It held up for generations as the place where Sheridan kids learned to swim, but by the time the City of Sheridan surveyed residents in 2019 as part of its parks and recreation master plan update, 71 percent said they wanted the pool renovated or rebuilt outright. That survey result is what finally moved the project from wish list to bid sheet.
Construction started in the fall of 2024. Interstate Engineering, which handled construction administration on the project, describes a $5.75 million rehab funded through a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant, the city's Specific Purpose Capital Tax, and franchise fees, with Dick Anderson Construction carrying out the build. The old pump house and deck came out first. What went back in was built for a park that serves an estimated 20,000 city residents and more than 33,000 people across Sheridan County, according to the engineering firm's own project summary.
What the Ribbon Cutting Actually Unveiled
The pool reopened to the public on June 7, 2026, with a free admission day from noon to 7 p.m., a ribbon cutting hosted by the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce, and remarks from Mayor Rich Bridger to a crowd Sheridan Media estimated at around 70 people. Bluepeak sponsored the free entry.
The headline features were easy to photograph: a zero-depth entry pool that lets toddlers wade in gradually instead of stepping off a ledge, three body water slides where the old curly-cue slide used to be, and a heated main pool. Daily admission for the 2026 season runs $8 for adults 18 to 59, $5 for youth and seniors, and $3 for kids 3 to 7. Season passes are $200 for an adult, $150 for youth or seniors, and $300 for a family of up to four, with extra family members added for $25 each. A 10-visit punch pass runs $50.
| Pass type | Price |
|---|---|
| Daily, adult | $8 |
| Daily, youth/senior | $5 |
| Daily, child (3-7) | $3 |
| Season, adult | $200 |
| Season, youth/senior | $150 |
| Season, family (up to 4) | $300 |
| 10-visit punch pass | $50 |
Do the math on a typical family outing, two adults and two young kids, and a single visit at daily rates runs about $22. At that pace, the $300 family season pass pays for itself in roughly 14 visits, which is well within reach for a household that treats the pool as a regular summer stop rather than an occasional treat.
The Detail That Actually Changes the Morning
The slides get the attention, but the heated water is what changed the park's clock. Recreation District leadership has said the warmer water let them push swim lessons earlier in the day and add lap swim sessions in the morning, something the unheated original pool couldn't support in Sheridan's cooler early hours. That's a small operational tweak with a real effect on foot traffic. Kendrick Park now has people arriving before work to swim laps, not just after work to cool off, stretching the park's active hours in a direction they didn't used to go.
If you've walked past the pool fence at 7 a.m. any time before this year, you know it used to be empty until well into the morning. That's no longer true, and it's worth knowing if you're used to having that end of the park to yourself early in the day.
Kendrick's Early Hours Already Belonged to Someone
Before the pool ever opened that early, the park's morning hours already had regulars. Sheridan has more dog parks per capita than any other community in Wyoming, according to the City of Sheridan's own parks department, and Lions Park Dog Park is one of the named facilities residents rely on for off-leash time before the workday starts. A lot of that early foot traffic runs straight through Kendrick on the way to or from the creek path, past the resident buffalo and elk enclosure that's been drawing a steady stream of dog walkers, joggers, and stroller pushers for years.
Kendrick also connects directly to Whitney Commons along a shared pathway, and that park runs its own hours from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with a splash pad and pavilion of its own. For a lot of Sheridan residents, the two parks function as one continuous loop rather than two separate destinations. Now that Kendrick's pool deck is active earlier in the day too, that loop has three different uses stacked on top of each other in the same early window: dogs, swimmers, and everyone just passing through on the path.
None of this is a conflict. It's more that the park absorbed a new use without losing any of the old ones, and if you're someone who's walked that loop at the same time for years, this year's version of it sounds and looks a little different than last year's.
The Rest of the Loop
The parts of Kendrick that didn't change are still exactly what long-time residents expect. The ice cream stand still runs through the warmer months. The creek still draws kids wading and adults finding shade along the bank. The chainsaw carvings scattered through the park are still there for anyone wandering past. The Sheridan County Travel and Tourism office's Concerts in the Park series ran its usual Tuesday evening run at Kendrick from June 30 through August 18 this year, lawn chairs and blankets included, same as it has for years.
What changed sits specifically at the pool gate and radiates outward a little. More people moving through the park earlier in the day means more people noticing the elk pen, more people walking past the ice cream stand before it opens, more overlap between the swim crowd and the dog crowd than the park has had before. It's a subtle shift, but if you use Kendrick regularly, you've probably already felt it without naming it.
Worth Knowing Before Next Season
The pool will reopen again next year, presumably on a similar schedule, and the heated water isn't going anywhere. If this year is any indication, that means Kendrick's early mornings are going to keep looking like they did this summer rather than reverting to the quieter version residents got used to during the two years the pool sat closed for construction. Whether that's a welcome change probably depends on whether you were there for the laps or there for the dog walk. Either way, it's worth knowing before you plan around it next spring.
For more on what's happening around Sheridan and its neighboring communities, our Sheridan neighborhood guide covers the wider picture of daily life in the area.
If Kendrick's new morning rhythm is the kind of local detail that makes you curious about the rest of the area, from downtown Sheridan out to the golf course six miles south, Powder Horn Realty keeps close tabs on this corner of Wyoming and is always glad to talk about it. Request a tour of The Powder Horn and we'll walk you through what's changing there too, the same way we just walked you through Kendrick.
