Sacred Places
Butterfly Garden & Overlook
Space frames standing where the houses stood.
WHERE
Joplin, MO
Visit
Where it is
26th and Maiden Lane, Joplin, MO 64804
What happens here
Visitors move through a garden that carries quotes from archived stories of storm survivors on its storyboards and water features.
HOW IT CAME TO BE
Thirty-eight minutes.
01
The Need
In May 2011 an EF5, mile-wide, multi-vortex tornado chewed through a large swath of Joplin. In 38 minutes it claimed 161 lives, injured 1,150 others, caused billions of dollars in damage, and left thousands of trees decimated, uprooted, or maimed. Parts of the community were utterly devastated.
02
The Vision
A special project funded largely by Nature Sacred through its National Nature Sacred program drew together a multi-disciplinary team to design and build a healing garden: architects, city officials, psychologists, musical therapists, urban planners, and community members. Children's own accounts shaped the design directly — the butterfly pavilion exists because children told stories of butterflies helping them during the storm.
03
The Transformation
The garden opened to the public in May 2014. Its most striking features are space frames symbolizing the homes demolished in the tornado's brief, extreme winds. The design weaves together themes drawn from Worden's Four Tasks of Mourning, the path a healthy person takes through grieving a loved one or something lost. Water features and the butterfly pavilion are key components, and plants that attract butterflies are incorporated throughout as another nod to the children's stories. Quotes from archived survivor accounts run across the storyboards and water features.
WHO TENDS IT
Melodee Colbert Kean
Firesoul, Butterfly Garden & Overlook
Read more →
HEAR FROM THE VISITORS
From the Little Yellow Journal
HOPE! Everyone needs a little hope and faith. I didn't exspirence this tornado but I just resently visited the park for the first time since the tornado ripped through. The park in more beautiful than ever.
– Hannah Powers, Age 14
