Law Park Landfill

How The Landfill Was Created

Madison city officials decided in the late 1920s or early '30s to build a landfill along the rocky shoreline of Lake Monona near Downtown. Local residents had been dumping garbage there for years, and the railroads had filled the shoreline to build tracks across the Isthmus. City officials had discussed the landfill as early as May 1923. The city started building the landfill about 1935 by constructing a fence of wooden poles and chicken wire about 150 feet offshore. During the next 15 years, workers dumped tons of coal ash, construction debris and household garbage into the lake, then packed it with tractors. When they finished, they covered the trash with about 12 inches of dirt. The landfill was started at Blount Street and built nearly one mile southwest to Monona Bay. It later became Law Park and the foundation for John Nolen Drive.

Law Park was a dump from 1941 to 1946, state records show. There's garbage all along there by the railroad tracks, under the shoulder, from Broom to Blair.