The property, known as Wood Field, was given to the children of Oracle on Armistice Day (Nov. 11), in 1928 by Elizabeth Lambert Wood. Wood, a philanthropist whose 1956 book "Arizona Hoof Trails" tells the history of Oracle, arrived here in 1902 with her physician husband in hopes that the high desert air and sunshine might cure his lung ailment. 

"She saw the land and thought it would be a wonderful playground for the children, since it was close to the school," said local resident Jane Woodruff, whose home abuts the property at Mount Lemmon Highway and John Adams Road. "She bought it and gave it as a gift. But because Oracle was unincorporated, the title went to the school." 

As a girl in Oracle in the late 1950s, Woodruff grew up playing in Wood Field. "It had playground equipment, a basketball court, a softball field," said Woodruff. "I fell in a love with a boy who caught the fly ball that won the tournament against Mammoth. I was 12." 

Mrs. Wood died in 1962, the same year that Woodruff left the area for a time. 

When Woodruff returned in 1973, the park had been closed off and was being used as a bus yard for the school. She asked then-school district Superintendent Jack Harmon what had happened to the park. 

"He said the park hadn't been maintained and was a hazard," she said. 

Woodruff later went to Florence to visit with then-Pinal County Supervisor Bill Mathieson and talked with him about restoring the Oracle property as a children's park. Mathieson was sympathetic, but nothing came of it. 

In 1990, Woodruff wrote to Mathieson's successor, Supervisor Lionel Ruiz, requesting that the county return the property to the community of Oracle. This time she had collected close to 500 signatures on a supporting petition and forwarded copies to Ruiz. 

Meanwhile, the school district had entered into negotiations with the county to trade the bus yard for county property closer to the site of the new middle school. 

The land swap was finalized in 1994. The buses left in 1996. 

By then, Woodruff had interested a few of her neighbors in the Wood Field project and another Oracle resident, Scott McMullen, wrote a letter to Ruiz requesting that the park be restored in honor of Mrs. Wood. He received a reply from Ruiz, stating that if a local non-profit organization wanted to take responsibility for the park, the county "would be more than willing to initiate a transfer of ownership." 

Another few years went by. Woodruff finally approached the Oracle Historical Society (OHS), asking the society to take on the project. OHS seemed to be a logical choice, since it had maintained its nonprofit, 501(c)(3) status in the community for 25 years and was already caretaker of two area historic sites, the Acadia and American Flag ranch properties. 

In January 2000, then OHS Vice President Dave Dobler began negotiations with the county through Ruiz to lease the Wood Field property for 25 years for $1 a year. That process took two years to complete. 

"OHS was compliant with everything the county requested," said the society's administrative coordinator, Cinnamon Schiek. "We had an appraisal done. We also had to get liability insurance coverage - those were biggies." Starting in September of 2000, negotiations with the county were handled through Deputy County Attorney Glenn Johnson. 

"We got the final lease back from Johnson last November and the board approved it in December," said attorney and OHS board member Betty Harmon, who took over OHS lease negotiations with the county after Dobler stepped down from the board at the end of his term in November. 

OHS sent the signed lease and $25 lease fee to Johnson on Dec. 18, 2001. Concurrently, Pinal County published its Legal Notice of Intent to Enter into Lease with OHS for four consecutive weeks in the Casa Grande Dispatch. All that remained was for the Board of Supervisors to approve the lease agreement at its Jan. 16, 2002 meeting. 

But the item was pulled from the agenda. 

Two days later, OHS received a letter from Supervisor Ruiz, stating: "Your interest in the property resurfaced with the receipt of your signed lease, after many months of waiting. We assumed your organization was no longer interested in acquiring the property ... after some time passed with no correspondence or show of interest from your organization I had no choice but to continue the process with (another) organization..." 

Woodruff was devastated. "After 28 years of effort to get the park back, to have it snatched away at five minutes to midnight - I just couldn't believe it!" 

Betty Harmon immediately called Johnson for an explanation. 

"He sounded shocked," Harmon said. "He said he'd only been informed of the switch the day before." 

Harmon and OHS President Andy Rush pressed Ruiz for a meeting. "We were blindsided," said Rush. "We didn't see it coming." Ruiz agreed to a meeting, but stood fast on his intention to give the lease to the other group. 

"I have no way of knowing whether it was cynical or whether he simply forgot," said Rush. "Or whether he's so disturbed by the politics of the moment that he decided to give it to this other organization." 

The organization slated to receive the Wood Field lease is the newly formed Citizens for Positive Growth and Development (CPGD) - a group founded by Oracle piano teacher Elaine Helzer and funded by two developers that want to build large projects in Ruiz's district: Robson Communities Inc. and Anam Inc. CPGD was incorporated on July 3, 2001. 

The Arizona Daily Star reported on July 6, 2001 that CPGD "received slightly less than $7,000 from two developers - the Remington Group, which wants to build Willow Springs, and Robson Communities, developer of SaddleBrooke Ranch. Another $7,000 in office equipment was donated by a member, retiree Bessie Jennings." 

The Remington Group was hired to promote the Anam project known as Willow Springs South Village, which "would carve out 8,516 homes and a golf course ... as the first phase of an environmentally friendly 20,000-acre 'self-sustaining' community that could draw 80,000 people to the high desert..." - according to The Arizona Republic, Aug. 8, 2001. In effect, it would create a city three times the size of Casa Grande, 12 miles northwest of Oracle. 

A few short weeks after founding CPGD, Helzer joined Anam Inc. as a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Pinal County alleging that the county mistakenly accepted petitions from an Oracle citizens group. The group, Pinal Citizens for Sustainable Communities, seeks to reverse a rezoning decision by the county's Board of Supervisors favoring Anam and instead put the issue to a public vote on the November 2002 ballot. It has already succeeded in forcing a referendum vote on the same ballot regarding Robson Communities' SaddleBrooke Ranch, a 6,000-home development northwest of Oracle Junction. 

Earlier, Robson Communities sent a mailer to Oracle residents promising "$5.5 million to Oracle and Pinal County kids" if its zoning would not be subject to a referendum. 

The flier specifically stated: "...working with Supervisor Ruiz, Saddlebrooke Ranch will contribute $1,000 per home sold to a special Pinal Youth Fund, provided we do not face a referendum on our zoning. The money will be spent at the direction of the Supervisors subject to the sole stipulation that it be used to provide recreational amenities for area kids. The fund can facilitate construction of community parks, pools, ball fields and other after-school resources. Saddlebrooke Ranch will advance fund a community pool and ball field in Oracle right away, if there is no referendum on the zoning." 

A call to Robson Communities to inquire whether Robson would have a role in the development of Wood Field by CPGD was not returned. 

Alex Argueta, president of the Remington Group, told the Dispatch that his organization had no plans regarding Wood Field and "had nothing to do with it." 

If CPGD - with or without Robson or Anam - has plans for a community pool, it might find Wood Field a disappointment. "It's in a major flood plain," said Woodruff. "A 100-year flood in 1996 dug a two-foot trench in my front yard and took the fence down all the way across the property - just wadded it up." 

Helzer declined to be interviewed, as did CPGD co-founder Sue Parra. 

Ruiz did agree to an interview. He told the Dispatch that he was "approached by CPGD" in April or May of last year. 

"They wanted the property. And I told them that at this time, it was already promised to the Oracle Historical Society." Ruiz said he checked with his staff and was informed that the county had sent a draft lease to the historical society for review in April. 

"I figured, well, they're sitting on it, maybe they don't want it anymore ... all they had to do was sign it and send it back," said Ruiz. "So I went ahead and called them (CPGD) up the next day ... (and said) you can have it, but this is what it's going to take." 

Ruiz said he instructed CPGD that it needed to obtain 501(c)(3) status, which it did with rapid speed, just one month after incorporating. 

At about the same time, Supervisor Ruiz took the unusual step of placing a large advertisement in the San Manuel Miner promoting the Anam project. 

"In September," Ruiz said, "the historical society still hadn't returned the signed lease, so I told Stan (Griffis, the Pinal County manager), I said 'Stan, you know, I'm changing directions on this.'" 

Somehow, "the county attorney never got a hold of it," said Ruiz, and the county continued to press forward with the OHS lease agreement. 

As the county's legal representation, Deputy County Attorney Johnson declined to be interviewed. 

OHS President Rush said the historical society would not pursue the lease agreement further, commenting: "I would guess that Helzer's group has assurances of some community gifts. God knows Oracle needs things for youth."