20 acres of land along the Boise River will be the future site of the Alta Harris Community Park. Alta Harris Community Park is the seventh riverside park in the "Ribbon of Jewels" named for prominent local women.
Anticipated to be built within five years, the new park will offer family-friendly recreational activities and enhanced community access to an area that showcases the beauty of the natural surroundings.
Located off Eckert Road north of Barber Park, the park will feature baseball and soccer fields, volleyball courts, restrooms, picnic shelters and trail connections to the Greenbelt and the Ridge to Rivers system. The park will also connect with the Dallas Harris Legacy Walkway, which is currently under construction. The new pathway will offer additional walking access along the river through an area that will be enjoyed by nature lovers for generations.
Alta Harris Bio
As a 21-year old woman, Alta Harris traveled in 1939 with her adventurous husband Dallas Harris from Smithville, Oklahoma to Idaho. She embraced the rolling hills and wildflowers that would color her landscape for the next seven decades.
Dallas and Alta marveled at Idaho's trees and land. Their vision to develop this richness began with a sawmill in the Thorn Creek area near Idaho City. Alta always looked out her kitchen windows to see sunflowers, cattle and the stretch of Idaho plain.
In 1950, they moved the sawmill to the Boise area, calling it Harris Brothers Lumber Company--eventually becoming Producers Lumber Company--and then they began acquiring land in East Boise along the Boise River.
There they established a ranch raising Hereford cattle which still operates today. The real estate development, Harris Ranch takes its name from this family enterprise. Dallas and Alta were true partners in business and life.
Alta has invested energy in civic and religious activities, as well as promoting Christian education.
Alta and Dallas Harris have four children: Felicia Burkhalter, Gary Harris, Millie Davis and Randy Harris.