Urey Park: the naming tested, and it holds — Harold C. Urey, born in Walkerton

By 1975–2026

Urey Park is the one park in this section whose person-name carries its naming record with it, on the Parks Department's own page. The department states it outright: the park is "Named after Harlod C. Urey" — the misspelling of Harold is the department site's own, and prints as found — "a Nobel Prize for Chemistry Recipient who was born in Walkerton." The person corroborates at encyclopaedia strength: Harold Clayton Urey, born at Walkerton 29 April 1893, died 5 January 1981, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1934 for the discovery of deuterium — the town's most famous native, whose name the school corporation also carries at Harold C. Urey Middle School. The park stood under its full name by 1975: the town paper of 11 September 1975 reports that "the flag will fly in the Harold C. Urey Park in downtown" — the same issue that records the restroom ground-breaking at Place Park. No establishment or dedication date for the park was found in any source reached, and none is printed. The department's page gives the ground's present furniture: downtown Walkerton, picnic tables and a water fountain, and the Town of Walkerton Christmas Tree, with its annual lighting ceremony held in the park. Joseph County. A park named for a person gets its naming record tested in this build; Urey Park's is the positive case, and the contrast with Scarbrough and Place — tested, and no record found — is the system working as intended.

Sources

1. Walkerton Parks Department, Urey Park page, walkertonparks.com — the naming record, department's own site.
2. The Independent-News, 11 September 1975 ("Harold C. Urey Park") — Hoosier State Chronicles.
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Harold Urey (born Walkerton, 29 April 1893; Nobel Prize 1934) — biography only.
4. Census geocoder point test, directory coordinates: Walkerton town, Lincoln Township, 11 November 2026.