Nov. 6, 1982, was a highly anticipated day in the small Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook.

The Bolingbrook indoor wave pool  one of the first in the nation  helped put the Illinois city on the map.
The Bolingbrook indoor wave pool one of the first in the nation helped put the Illinois city on the map.

That was the date of the grand opening of [one of] the nation's first indoor wave pools. The day still serves as a momentous event in the Bolingbrook community, more than 20 years later. In a town of just over 30,000 people at the time, the Bolingbrook Park District wave pool's grand opening was the event that put Bolingbrook on the map. Visitors from all over the country came to ride the waves of Bolingbrook.

Today, the Bolingbrook community has more than doubled in size to over 60,000 people. The wave pool is still a source of pride for all of us. The mere mention of it stirs emotions in residents who lived through the wave pool's construction. They vividly remember opening day and the media mania surrounding the event.

Mechanical problems and the construction of a new indoor/outdoor aquatic park led to the closure of the wave pool in 1996. Alas, it is now an indoor ice arena.

The wave pool may be gone, but no one will ever forget his first ?ride? on Bolingbrook wave.