Denver’s Lakeside Amusement Park
By David Forsyth
University Press of Colorado
For more than a century, Lakeside has been one of Denver’s premier attractions. (Well, technically, it was built in the town of Lakeside, not Denver, but that’s beside the point.) Its rides and big-name bands, its train and fun house with the laughing lady have appealed to generations.
Perhaps most remarkable of all, Lakeside has survived. Of some 5,000 amusement parks built between 1895 and 1920, only 100 were still around in 2008. Lakeside’s success is due in large part to its management.
The park was built by a group of Denver businessmen, including the scion of the Zang brewing family. The design was part of the City Beautiful movement that also gave Denver Civic Center. To keep Lakeside from being surrounded by tawdry Coney Island-type businesses, Lakeside’s owners purchased a huge quantity of land and incorporated it as the town of Lakeside. The park was designed for respectable visitors, no riff-raff. Part of the acreage was set aside for mansions. They were never built, and that land became the Lakeside Shopping Mall.
The buildings were constructed of brick and wood, not the shoddy composite materials that were used in most amusement park structures, including Chicago’s White City. The park’s Art Deco look was added in a 1930s remodeling, although the park kept its iconic Tower of Jewels.
Author David Forsyth has done yeoman work in ferreting out information on Lakeside’s history and including it in his detailed “Denver’s Lakeside Amusement Park.”
When it was opened in 1908, he writes, Lakeside was one of four amusement parks in Denver. Two quickly faded. The third, Elitch Gardens, abandoned its North Denver location and turned itself into a Six Flags-like venue. Only Lakeside is left, ready for its second century.
Native American Almanac
By Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder and Shannon Rothenberger Flynn
Visible Ink.
Subtitled “More than 50,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous Peoples,” “Native American Almanac” is an ambitious book. It categorizes America’s Indian tribes by geographical locations in the U.S., then gives details on each tribe.
Under each category, the authors discuss tribal issues, culture, traditions, land and environment. In the West, those sections include information on mining and water issues. The book features biographies of prominent tribal members. Former Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell is included as an important Northern Cheyenne.
There are brief sections on tribal events. The Menominee Tribe, for instance, was the first to be terminated by the U.S. Government. In the 1950s, the government dissolved its trust relationship with tribes it considered competent to manage their own affairs. The experiment in self-sufficiency was a disaster, and the tribe later came back under government jurisdiction. “The Menominee … have yet to recover from the aftereffects of Termination and remain the most impoverished Indian community in the state,” the authors write.
“Native American Almanac” does not go into major detail on any of the tribes. Instead it is a general resource, a look at the people and cultures of America’s indigenous peoples, both past and present.
Sea of Sand: A History of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
By Michael M. Geary
University of Oklahoma.
When he first decided to write about the Great Sand Dunes, Colorado author Michael M. Geary was told to follow the water. The story of the dunes is indeed about water. The Dunes are located in the San Luis Valley with its artesian wells. And while they are dry and sandy, the dunes sit atop a huge reservoir of water. Geary writes that he drank brackish water from a monitoring well, water that had been there for 30,000 years.
“Sea of Sand” is a history of the San Luis Valley and its remarkable dunes, with their changing ecology. Early travelers, from the Spanish to the American explorers, wrote about the area’s water — or lack of it. They could never quite agree on that. Colorado Gov. William Gilpin, ever a promoter, called the area a virtual Eden and encouraged settlement. The Spanish tried to domesticate the buffalo, then later introduced sheep. Settler Ulysses Virgil Herard raised thousands of cattle in the San Luis Valley and introduced rainbow trout. All that changed the area’s ecology.
Of course, there are legends about the dunes. From time to time, the winds uncover Indian artifacts or even skeletons. No one has ever found the carts of gold that are supposed to be buried there, however.
In recent years, the Great Sand Dunes was named a National Park. That was not without controversy as some local residents as well as powerful politicians opposed the designation.
A book on Great Sand Dunes might have been as brown and dull as the sand hills themselves. But Geary’s writing makes the San Luis Valley and its famous park absorbing reading.
