Home  Carousel News & Trader September 2008 Rare Lakeside Amusement Park Carousel A Colorado Charmer For 100 Years
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Rare Lakeside Amusement Park Carousel A Colorado Charmer For 100 Years |
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Written by Roland Hopkins
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Sunday, 16 November 2008 |
DENVER, CO – Both Lakeside Amusement Park and its historic carousel celebrate their 100th birthdays this year. As with so many historic carousels, the origin of this ride seems uncertain. It seems equally uncertain whether the ride debuted at the park in 1908 or elsewhere, moving to the park at a later date.
The carousel is considered a Parker/mix but it is certainly not your typical Parker. The carousel boasts a very rare, if not one-or-a-kind, three-level platform and some very unusual carvings. The large four-row machine has 16 jumpers, 16 standers, 40 menagerie figures and four chariots.
Included in the menagerie are two bears, four burros, three deer, four dogs, five goats, two lions, four pigs, four rabbits, two tigers, two zebras, two panthers, one cheetah, two monkeys and three cougars.
Though the carousel is attributed to Parker, one website in my research
suggested that some carvings show indications of Looff, but in my
limited knowledge, I don’t really see that. More likely, many of the
atypical menagerie figures were carved in Mexico. It is certainly
known that in the heyday of carousels, builders and carvers would
borrow from each other to fill orders and make deadlines. This rare
machine would seem to be one where someone did just that.
Lakeside Park History
Lakeside Amusement Park is a family owned amusement park in Lakeside,
CO, near Denver. It was opened in 1908 as a popular amusement resort
adjacent to Lake Rhoda spearheaded by prominent Denver brewer Adolph
Zang, and popularly nicknamed the White City for its glittering
original display of over 100,000 lights. Today it is one of the oldest
amusement parks in the nation, and the oldest in Colorado in its
original location. The park, comprising nearly half of the town of
Lakeside that it was responsible for creating in 1907, features the
landmark Tower of Jewels.
The park was originally built in the Exposition and White City
architectural styles. Following its acquisition by Ben Krasner in the
1930s, Lakeside underwent a period of major renovations and
incorporated many new features in the Art Deco style. Architect Richard
L. Crowther designed much of Lakeside’s deco and modern features. He
included a great deal of neon lighting in his work.
There are many examples of architectural salvage to be found throughout
the park. Inside the main restaurant is a marble and mirror backbar
which was saved from Denver’s Union Station. One of the picnic
pavilions is created from a retired center column of a ride, and the
pool for the current Skoota Boats ride is an adaptive reuse of the
original Shoot-the-Chutes ride. The main office even features a
functioning manual telephone switchboard that is still in use.
A nominal admission fee is charged for each person entering the park.
Children under the age of two are admitted free. A coupon is issued to
each person paying admission that can be redeemed for a ride coupon or
be used towards the purchase of an unlimited ride pass.
There are three entrances: a rarely-used west gate accessed from the
Lakeside Mall parking lot, a drive-through auto gate accessed from
Sheridan Boulevard and a walk-in entrance at the Tower of Jewels. The
admission fee is collected at these entrances; ride coupons and
unlimited passes are sold inside the park.
This fee structure is a frequent source of confusion for first-time
visitors. Many patrons think that they are paying for parking because
the admission fee is collected at the auto gate before the vehicle is
parked. Consequently some people will turn around, park outside and try
to walk in through the auto gate, only to be stopped and directed to
one of the cashiers, who then need to explain that parking is always
free and that it costs the same to enter whether they drive or walk in.
In contrast to, for example, Palisades Amusement Park, which had a
chronic shortage of parking space, there is ample parking available at
Lakeside and the spacious lot rarely fills up completely.
At one time, each ride was priced individually and had its own separate
ticket booth. Most of these booths were of the stand-alone type. One
notable exception was the Cyclone coaster, which had a built-in ticket
booth between the entrance and exit ramps. Eventually, ride coupons
were implemented with a fixed amount for each coupon, and each ride
required from one to five coupons. Coupon sales were consolidated at
four locations - the train depot, the carousel, the ferris wheel and
Kiddy Play Land. Unlimited ride passes are sold at the carousel, ferris
wheel and Kiddy Play Land. Many of the original ticket booths are still
in place and are used for storage.
The 22” gauge lake-circling miniature railway train features the steam
train locomotives “Puffing Billy” and “Whistling Tom” from the 1904 St.
Louis World’s Fair, along with the world’s first miniature gauge diesel
locomotive, patterned after the California Zephyr.
The Cyclone is by far the most popular ride at the park. Built in 1940, it is an ACE Coaster Classic and Coaster Landmark.
For information, visit www.lakesideamusementpark.com or call (303) 477-1621.
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Roland Hopkins |
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