Index For This Page
This page was last updated on December 30, 2024.
(Return to The Lagoon Resort Page)
(Text only, mirrored from NPS website)
"Historic Resources of the Lagoon Amusement Park, Farmington, Utah, 1886 — 1976"
(Download the original document; PDF; 29 pages; 29.25MB)
(Footnotes converted to inline notes)
The Lagoon Amusement Park in Farmington, Utah, is the fifth oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States.[1 - Various sources provide a different ranking from fifth to twelfth, but a comparison of Lagoon at its Farmington location to other operating parks with similar histories and attractions, the fifth oldest rank appears to be the most accurate.]
It is the only extant historic amusement park in the state of Utah. Established in the era of the streetcar (trolley) parks, the one-hundred and twenty-six year history of Lagoon represents the park's successful transition from a summer bathing resort, to a mechanical amusement park, to a modern-day theme park. In order to adequately illustrate Lagoon's evolution, the period of historic significance extends from the park's beach resort beginning in 1886 to the park's acquisition of the open-air museum known as Pioneer Village in 1976.[2 - The acquisition of Pioneer Village, a museum-quality collection of buildings and artifacts, was an exceptional moment in Lagoon's history and therefore included in this Multiple Property Documentation form. Although, numerous historic resources are old enough to qualify for the NRHP, they no longer have integrity of original location. It is anticipated that the museum as a whole will be evaluated for NRHP eligibility as it approaches the fifty-year cut-off for eligibility.]
Only three days after the Mormon pioneers settled the Salt Lake Valley in the summer of 1847, Brigham Young led an excursion to the Great Salt Lake to explore the salty inland sea. For the next two decades, regular groups of settlers and travelers experienced the buoyancy of swimming at various locations along the lakeshore. After the coming of the railroad in 1869, a new age in lakeside recreation was bom. By the 1890s, there were at least eight operating resorts on the east shores of the Great Salt Lake accessible from three different rail spurs.[3 - Nancy D. and John S. McCormick, Saltair (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1985): 3.]
The largest and most famous was Saltair, a bathing resort established in 1893 sixteen miles west of downtown Salt Lake City.
Lagoon's first incarnation was as a beach resort called Lake Park on the edge of the Great Salt Lake ten miles west of the city of Farmington in Davis County, Utah. Lake Park was built by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad midway between Ogden and Salt Lake City. Lake Park was partially owned by Simon Bamberger, a transportation magnate and governor of Utah from 1917 to 1920. Lake Park opened on July 15, 1886. The architectural centerpiece of the resort was an open-air pavilion designed by Richard Kletting, the architect of the Utah State Capitol. The roundtrip train fare also provided admission to dancing, roller skating, target shooting, a bowling alley, and a pleasure garden. Attractions included "two large sail boats and a small steam boat... a Flying Jennie ... a number of live, active burros with saddles and bridles, for the amusement of the children."[4 - Salt Lake Tribune, June 19, 1887: 6. A Flying Jennie (or Jenny) has been described as a mule-powered carousel with swinging seats (www. 1890village.com).]
Only a few years after the opening of Lake Park, the waters of the fickle Great Salt Lake began to recede, leaving the resort beaches with a "sticky brand of blue mud" that spelled misery for bathers by the early 1890s.[5 - Saltair: 14-15.]
In 1896, Simon Bamberger moved Lake Park's roller skating rink, saloon, cafe, pavilion, and other attractions inland to a property at the western edge of Farmington.
The new resort featured two artificial lagoons and was christened the Lagoon Summer Resort and Picnic Grounds. The Lagoon resort opened on July 12, 1896. An early advertisement in the Salt Lake Tribune called it the "finest picnic spot in Utah" with "Excellent boating, Elegant dancing pavilion, Fine music, A shady bowery" and a "good restaurant on the premises."[6 - Salt Lake Tribune, July 13, 1896: 8.]
The 1898 Sanborn map of Lagoon shows the interurban Salt Lake & Ogden Railway line along the east side of the resort. An arbor connected the dining room near the railroad stop to the relocated concert and dancing pavilion from Lake Park. Another vine and lattice arbor connected the concert pavilion to the Bowery, a large open air lunching pavilion with a merry-go-round in the center. Other structures included the bar room, a shooting gallery, bleachers, and a series of small booths near the west lagoon.[7 - The round structures are labeled booths on the 1898 Sanborn map, but may have been changing cabanas.]
The west lagoon was smaller with a more rounded "pond" shape. The larger east lagoon jutted further north and had a straight edge that paralleled the railroad line. A footbridge and walking path separated the two lagoons.
By the early 1900s, Saltair and Lagoon emerged as the main competitors for the swimming and summer resort patrons who flocked to the Great Salt Lake each year. The others gradually died off, as one by one, they were plagued by fires, wind, salt water, and low patronage. The operators of Lagoon were quick to stress the differences between the new resort and its competitor who was still lakeside. At the beginning of the 1903 season, Simon Bamberger raised its train and admission fare from 25 cents to 50 cents in order to attract "only the best class of patronage" and actively promoted the Lagoon's "beautiful grounds" with its shade trees, flowers, grass, gardens, and cool temperatures in an effort to distinguish the resort from its rival.[8 - Saltair: 73; Salt Lake Herald, April 21, 1903: 5; Salt Lake Herald, August 17, 1903: 5-6.]
By 1910, Simon Bamberger completed the conversion of the interurban railroad, commonly known as the Bamberger, from steam to electricity with the Lagoon station remaining the most popular midway stop. A large greenhouse was built outside of the park boundary east of the railroad. Near the greenhouse, Davis County built a concrete holding jail for rowdies, for example, one patron who "got intoxicated at the Lagoon ... and was locked up in the county jail that night, but was given his freedom again the next morning on the promise of leaving the country."[9 - Davis County Clipper, August 4, 1899: 1.]
In the decade leading up to the electrification of the railroad, Bamberger and his managers had begun the transformation of the pleasure garden resort into a mechanical amusement park. By the time of the 1911 Sanborn map, the north half of the resort near the train station had expanded to include the skating rink, bowling alley, cafe, music hall, grandstand, and ball grounds. A new dance pavilion (twice as large with a steel-truss roof) had been constructed and the pavilion from Lake Park became the main picnic pavilion. In the southeast comer of the resort, the larger lagoon had been partially cemented and an X-shaped bathhouse built for swimmers in 1903. The resort had a small zoo with bears, monkeys, and exotic birds by 1900. At the north edge of the smaller west lagoon, the management installed a collection of mechanical amusement park rides. By the early 1900s a miniature steam-powered engine pulled three cars full of tots around the south end of the park. Bump-the-Bumps was an early outdoor version of a funhouse slide where patrons would climb stairs to the top for a bumpy toboggan ride back to the bottom. An outdoor "joy wheel" ride, the predecessor of the funhouse human roulette wheel, was installed just south of the merry-go-round. Newspaper accounts of Lagoon indicate the merry-go-round was extremely popular as "children ogled nickels out of 'papa' and lavishly patronized" the ride.[10 - Deseret News, May 31, 1900: 9.]
A 1902 newspaper article describes an accident that involved Lagoon's early horse-powered merry-go-round:
Some reckless fellow had a palm leaf fan in his hand, with which he kept striking the horse to make it go faster. The animal finally rebelled and started off wildly around the circle. In a few moments the whirligig was going with such velocity that the children were unable to keep their seats and went tumbling out into the open.[11 - Salt Lake Herald, July 19, 1902: 8. At the time of the accident, the merry-go-round was no longer under the Bowery. One of the three children injured "struck a three-foot picket fence, which surrounds the merry-go-round, with such force that five pickets were tom off." Oral tradition at Lagoon suggests a circa 1893 merry-go-round operated at the park, which likely refers to the "old-fashioned" horse-powered device.]
In the early 1900s, the peaceful atmosphere at the resort was considered a plus. One visitor to Lagoon in 1907 commented that "There wasn't any clang or whirr of machinery, for even the merry-go-round is run by horse power."[12 - Salt Lake Herald, May 31, 1907: 2. Oral tradition at Lagoon states that the current carousel was installed in 1906; however, this article suggests the horse-powered merry-go-round was still in use in 1907.]
By 1913, the horse-powered had been replaced with a "big electric merry-go-round" and is likely the 40-foot diameter carousel that appears on the 1911 Sanborn map.[13 - 13 Salt Lake Telegram, May 29, 1913: 10.]
This second merry-go-round at Lagoon was later described as "a motor driven machine with cables."[14 - Deseret News, December 8, 1963. Salt Lake City Library clippings file. The description was from Ranch S. Kimball who managed the park between 1946 and 1970. This is probably the machine believed to have been installed in 1906, but probably after 1907, and purchased for $2,000. See Lynn R. Arave, "It's About Fun: A History of the Lagoon/Amusement Theme Park." Unpublished, TMs, August 2009: 18.]
One anonymous author provides a vivid description of an early carousel at Lagoon: "A number of large brass rings were hanging and as you rode past, if you were lucky enough to reach out (without falling off) and grab a brass ring, you were entitled to a free ride."[15 - "Story of Lagoon," Unpublished TMs, no date. Utah State Research Center.]
But it was the two new thrill rides that brought record-breaking crowds to the resort for the 1906 and 1907 seasons.[16 - Report on the Salt Lake & Ogden Railway Co., May 9, 1907, TMs, Utah State Historical Society. The report notes 117,870 paid admissions for the 1906 season. The estimate for 1907 was 150,000.]
On the 50-foot tall Shoot-the-Chutes, eight to ten passengers would sit in flat-bottom boats, which were dragged to the top of the ride by a cable and rotated 180 degrees on a turntable for a fast descent into an elongated pond of water. Shoot-the-Chutes was installed in time for the 1906 season and is considered Lagoon's first thrill ride.[17 - Deseret News, March 19 1906: 7. Deseret News, October 22, 1906: 2.]
After only a few months of operation, the ride was damaged by high winds in October 1906. In time for the 1907 season, the ride was repaired and the "pond at the foot of the chute [was] enlarged for better handling of the boats."[18 - Deseret News, April 27, 1907: 12.]
That spring the resort also constructed its first roller coaster-type ride referred to as a scenic railway.[19 - Deseret News, May 25, 1907: 12.]
The scenic railway was a 40-foot high wooden trestle supporting a double figure-eight roller coaster, possibly designed by Frederick Ingersoll who had designed a scenic railway for the Salt Palace Resort the previous year. A Lagoon advertisement published in 1907 used the term "thrilling roller coaster" to describe the scenic railway.[20 - Salt Lake Tribune, July 3, 1907: 8. On May 30, 1908, the scenic railway had its first serious accident when a young man was thrown from the one of the cars and suffered a broken leg. Davis County Clipper, June 5, 1908: 1.]
During the early 1900s, a series of managers handled day-to-day operations of the resort for Simon Bamberger. By the time Bamberger began his gubernatorial campaign, the resort was in the capable hands of A. C. Christensen. Anthon C. Christensen served as the assistant manager of Lagoon between 1908 and 1916, and the general manager between 1917 and 1927.[21 - A. C. Christensen's wife, Isabella, worked as a bookkeeper for the resort in the 1930s.]
In his first year as general manager, Christensen oversaw $40,000 in improvements to the resort including a thousand tons of sand shipped for an enlarged swimming area called Waikiki Beach, and the replacement of the big electric merry-go-round with an even bigger Herschell-Spillman model.[22 - Salt Lake Telegram, May 22, 1918: 10.]
In advance of Lagoon's opening for the 1918 season, the Waikiki Beach swimming pool received the lion's share of publicity, but one newspaper article quoted A. C. Christensen, who perfectly described the Herschell-Spillman menagerie carousel being installed at Lagoon:
The former merry-go-round has given place to a new one, which is said to be one of the finest in the West. The new amusement device is the modem type, having room for sixty passengers and nearly every bird and beast which went into the ark will be saddled and bridled ready to carry the kiddies on a happy ride.[23 - Salt Lake Telegram, May 22, 1918: 10.]
At the northwest end of the park, baseball games, bicycle races, and other special exhibitions were held that drew larger crowds. In 1911, Farmington resident Milton Hess was contracted to build a track for horse racing. The horse races were well attended for two years before horse-racing was outlawed by the Utah legislature in 1913. The outline of the track and the old bam still exist. On October 11, 1914, Lagoon used the track area to sponsor an exhibition race between an automobile and an airplane that thrilled over 2,000 spectators.[24 - Thirty-five separate exhibitions by aviator, Lincoln Beachey, and driver, Barney Oldfield, were held all over the country in 1914.]
In the early 1900s, a visit to the Lagoon summer resort and picnic grounds was a firmly established tradition for a large number of Utah residents living between Ogden and Salt Lake City. The patrons came, not only in family groups, but as part of church congregations, unions, fraternal clubs, ethnic organizations, and extended family reunions. The park hosted a number of special event days, such as Decoration Day (Memorial Day), Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Old Folks' Day, where patrons above a certain age got in for free.
The transformation from summer resort to mechanical amusement park was a result of both physical and managerial changes at Lagoon. A. C. Christensen traveled frequently to other amusement parks on the east and west coasts, and became one of the first amusement park professionals in the state.[25 - Davis County Clipper, October 21, 1921: 1.]
He was elected as a director for the National Association of Amusement Parks at the organization's annual meeting in December 1921.[26 - Salt Lake Telegram, December 18, 1921: 2.]
Christensen led a campaign to keep states from passing "blue laws" designed to close all types of amusements on Sundays. It was during Christensen's tenure in the 1920s that the Lagoon Resort was first referred to as the Lagoon Amusement Park.[27 - Both names were used interchangeably and intermittently depending on the source.]
For the 1919 season, Lagoon built its tallest amusement device, the Captive Aeroplanes, which was pronounced the "sensation of the season."[28 - Salt Lake Telegram, June 25, 1919: 5.]
Lagoon's ride was a successor to the simple Flying Jenny of the previous generation. Lagoon's Captive Aeroplanes consisted of an approximately 60-foot iron tower and four mock airplanes that swung from cables over the east lagoon.[29 - The designer and manufacturer of the Lagoon ride are unknown. The ride was partially damaged by wind in January 1920. In a letter to a local newspaper, Mr. A. B. de Villentroy, a photographer and French immigrant living in Salt Lake City, claimed to be the owner of the ride and assured the public it was being safely repaired. Salt Lake Telegram, January 10, 1920: 3.]
The first name of the roller coaster at the Farmington resort was the Lagoon Dipper, a 60-foot high wooden roller coaster designed by John A. Miller in 1921. A. C. Christensen was likely familiar with the work of roller coaster designer John A. Miller through his contacts at the National Association of Amusement Parks. It is also possible that John A. Miller may have spent time in Utah during his time working as an engineer for Frederick Ingersoll, who had designed both the Salt Palace railway and the Giant Racer, a 1919 twin coaster for Saltair. The Lagoon Roller Coaster was built during John A. Miller's partnership with Hany C. Baker, another well-known roller coaster engineer. The Davis County Clipper that describes the new features at Lagoon for the 1921 season: "One is called the Lagoon Dipper being similar to the one at Saltair and was built by a Colorado Company, at a cost, it is said, of something like $75,000."[30 - Davis County Clipper, May 27, 1921: 4. Neither the Colorado nor the Colonial Construction Company was found in a search of the Colorado Business Directory for 1921.]
The $75,000 outlay was by far the largest expense for a single amusement device that the Lagoon resort had purchased to that date.
Lagoon's scenic railway was demolished to make room for the Miller-designed coaster. The Lagoon Dipper was twenty feet taller and extended 450 feet further west than the scenic railway. As soon as the upper bents were put in place, the structure was an instant landmark on the approach to Lagoon from any direction. Only seven months earlier, on August 18, 1920, Lagoon was the spot chosen for a celebration of the completion of a concrete highway running between Salt Lake City and Ogden.[31 - The Weekly Reflex: Concrete Highway Edition, 14, no. 45 (August 19,1920): 10-11.]
Although the Bamberger electric railroad remained popular, an increasing number of patrons were driving to Lagoon in private vehicles and entering the resort from the west where the roller coaster could be seen to its best advantage. Most of the new coaster was built on previously undeveloped land, but the local newspaper noted that the "shoot-the-chutes has been moved farther back [to the west], the pond in front of the same changed and enlarged" the relocation of the shoots incline may have been designed to accommodate the crowds that would be lining up for the new coaster.[32 - Davis County Clipper, May 27, 1921: 4.]
Advertising copy text modulated from describing the resort as "40 Acres of Joy" to the evocative "Coney Island of the West."[33 - Compare Salt Lake Tribune, May 29, 1918: 8 to Ogden Standard Examiner, May 30, 1922: 7.]
With the installation of the roller coaster, the Lagoon began to more closely resemble a traditional American amusement park. In the 1920s, Lagoon's Midway took form with the roller coaster and carousel anchoring the south end. A funhouse was built at the center point of the Midway in 1923. Beginning in the 1920s, the Davis County Fair was held in the area of the race track and parking lot for several years. The 1926 Sanborn map shows that a portion of the east lagoon had been sectioned off for a pool, more games along the midway, and a special pavilion for ice cream. An early version of the bumper cars, the Dodge 'Em Junior had been installed at the north end of the midway.
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Lagoon and Saltair remained competitors. When the swimming pool at Lagoon was enlarged and filtered in 1927, Lagoon began advertising with the slogan "swim in water fit-to-drink," a refreshing alternative to the singular yet unpleasant experience of swimming in the Great Salt Lake.[34 - Lagoon promotion brochures, 1938 and 1940, Utah State Historical Society files.]
Both of the resorts weathered the depression years, but in slightly different ways. Dancing in the large open air pavilions remained a big draw. Saltair spent money on big name bands of the period, while Lagoon focused on local talent.[35 - Saltair. 73.]
A. C. Christensen retired in 1927. His successor, Simon Bamberger's son, Julian M. Bamberger, was responsible for not only keeping the park open through the depression years, but transforming the resort into a modem amusement park by the late 1930s.[36 - Simon Bamberger died in 1926.]
One of the most enduring rides acquired by Julian Bamberger was the Flying Scooter manufactured by the Bisch-Rocco Company of Illinois, which was installed for the 1941 season. Lagoon advertised its new ride as "the nearest approach to flying a plane without leaving the confines of the earth" and "the amusement thrill of the year."[37 - Salt Lake Telegram, May 29, 1941: 8.]
A tri-fold Lagoon brochure produced for the 1941 season included a photograph of delighted riders and the words: "Ride, Dive, Slide, Slip, the New Flying Scooters. Like a Real Plane! You Control the Rudder."[38 - Advertisement, 1941, digital copy courtesy of the Lagoon Corporation.]
Lagoon's initial investment in the Flying Scooter appeared to be short-lived. When the scooter cars were removed for winter storage in the fall of 1942, they remained there for 3-1/2 years. The Lagoon resort, along with nearly all of Utah's recreational venues, experienced a dark (non-operating) period between 1943 and 1945, due to a scarcity of gasoline, materials, and labor during World War II.
By early 1946, the Lagoon Amusement Park was filled with weeds and the rides were falling apart. Milton Hess, who had been hired as caretaker, described Lagoon as "more like a graveyard than an amusement park."[39 - Margaret Steed Hess, My Farmington, 1847-1976, (Farmington, Utah]: Helen Mar Miller Camp, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1976): 379.]
The Bamberger family had lost interest in running the park and considered razing it, but agreed to lease it to entrepreneurs Ranch Kimball and the Freed brothers, Robert, David, Daniel, and Peter, who came home from the war looking for a project.[40 - After several years of serving as the President of Lagoon, Ranch Kimball gave up his managerial interest in the park in 1970. Deseret News, January 26, 1980.]
Under the name Utah Amusement Corporation, the partners spruced up the ghost-town like park with new paint in time for a 1946 season opening. The next year the new management had built a new cafe and tavern, and the park's first fully enclosed or "dark" ride: the Ghost Train.[41 - This type of ride is traditionally called a "dark ride" because in the enclosed environment, the selective use of darkness hides the mechanics of the ride.]
The Century Flyer with its sleek stainless-steel "rocket ships" had replaced the Captive Aeroplane swings, but the miniature railway was retained for the "kiddies" although relocated to the former location of the Shoot-the-Chutes incline. One year late because of the war, the Lagoon Amusement Park celebrated its 50th anniversary of the park in 1947.
During its postwar rebirth, Lagoon had geography on its side. The park was situated on a major transportation corridor on the narrowest portion of land between the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch mountains with plenty of room to grow. As fewer patrons rode the train, Lagoon was able to expand its parking lot several times in succession. On September 6, 1952, the electric passenger railroad made its final stop at the Lagoon station. When the rail company shut down operations completely, the Salt Lake Tribune published this eulogy: "The Bamberger Railroad died yesterday, the victim of a 'collision' with the family automobile."[42 - Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1959. The railroad continued with limited passenger service from Ogden to Hill Air Force Base in the 1950s and some freight service through December 1958.]
Some old timers mourned the loss of the Bamberger, but for the majority of the park's patrons, the automobile was the preferred mode of travel to Lagoon.
The Lagoon management continued making improvements each year. In 1949, a Perkins filter and new dressing rooms were added to the pool area. In the early 1950s, the funhouse was remodeled and the Midway updated with new games. A ferris wheel was installed in time for the 1953 season.
On the night of November 14, 1953, as an orange glow appeared on the mountains to the east, Farmington residents got in their cars and parked along the highway to watch as half of the Lagoon Amusement Park burned to the ground. The fire destroyed the west side of the midway, the dance pavilion, and the fun house. The roller coaster station and front portion of the lift hill were destroyed. The carousel was charred, but eventually saved by fireman continuously dousing it with water throughout the night.
Speaking about the fire, Peter Freed has stated "In retrospect, it was the best thing that ever happed to us .... it made room for the new Lagoon."[43 - Arave: 28.]
With only partial insurance, the park began an ambitious program of rebuilding with a $500,000 investment for the 1954 season. The roller coaster was rebuilt with a gleaming new station in the streamline modeme-style to match the new patio ballroom and east midway buildings designed by R. Lloyd Snedaker, an architect from Salt Lake City. Lagoon's phoenix-like opening took place on May 1, 1954, with nineteen new and improved attractions. The new rides in 1954 included the Octopus, the Tilt-a-Whirl, Rock-o-Plane, Roll-o-Plane, Spook House, Kiddie Planes, and the Lakeshore Express Train.
The July 17, 1955, opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, popularized the theme park concept. One year later, Lagoon built its first themed area. Just east of the carousel, five acres were transformed into Mother Goose Land, a children's playground and ride area. The new kiddie-ride area featured the child-sized boats, the Sky Fighter ride, Bulgy the Whale, a miniature auto speedway, and a twelve-foot-high kiddie-coaster. The area was designed by a New York firm and all of the rides were built by national companies.[44 - The companies included Eyerly Aircraft and the Chance Company. The coaster was built by the Allan Herschell Company, a successor of the Herschel-Spillman Company. The 1956 Allan Herschell coaster was replaced by the Puff the Little Fire Dragon Coaster in 1985.]
Mother Goose Land also featured a playground with swings and a sandbox. The decor included the Old Woman's Shoe, a Hickory Dickory Clock, a wishing well, and other nursery rhyme elements. Child-size hot dogs and ice cream were sold out of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater's shell.[45 - Deseret News, December 21, 1955: A-10.]
The Herschell-Spillman menagerie carousel, which had been repainted with storybook characters scenery panels, was considered a de facto element of Mother Goose Land. A sturdier shelter structure was built for the carousel in 1958, the same year a new funhouse designed by Ranch Kimball was built on the Midway. A kiddie helicopter ride was added to Mother Goose Land in 1963.
At the south end of the Midway, the area around the lagoons changed dramatically. In 1959, a showboat glided on the east lagoon, while the west lagoon was filled-in to provide space for an adult-size auto speedway in 1960. The swimming pool was remodeled again, and for the first time, physically severed from the lagoon area. In 1967, the train ride circling the east lagoon was changed to the Animaland Train. In 1975, it was renamed the Wild Kingdom Train and viewing access to the Lagoon zoo was provided during the train ride. Also that year, the Spook House was replaced by the Terroride. Other improvements in the 1960s included an expansion of the Midway and a miniature golf-course. Paddle-boats on the Lagoon replaced the showboat in 1971. In 1969, the park's holdings expanded from sixty acres to 150 acres. The fourteen-acre Lagoon Campground at the extreme south end of the park's property was developed in the early 1970s.
Between the 1950s and 1960s, the Patio Gardens at Lagoon was one of the most popular concert venues in Utah. Luminaries such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Frankie Avalon, and the Everly Brothers performed at Lagoon. Groups ranging from the Kingston Trio, to the Beach Boys, to the Doors, also played at Lagoon. After a particularly raunchy concert by the latter, the Lagoon management converted the dance/concert pavilion to a roller skating rink in the 1969. The rink was later transformed into an arcade game area. Around the same time, Lagoon began to provide more in-house family-friendly entertainment, including its own marching band and the construction of the 350-seat Lagoon Opera House in 1968. The park continued to expand its picnic grounds and pavilions throughout this period reaching a peak of 779 picnic tables in 1971. [46 - Arave, 38.]
The north end of the Midway was built-up in the mid-1960s. The Space Scrambler was installed in 1961. The Lagoon management honored the Bamberger family with a bust of Simon Bamberger at the main entrance in 1963, and a fountain dedicated to Julian Bamberger in 1965. Lagoon's 1965 season opened with the first new roller coaster built in the park since 1921, the Wild Mouse, a coaster that used single-car trains on a track with very tight turns.[47 - Two versions of the Wild Mouse (1965 and 1975) have been replaced by a new version]
In the early 1970s, the Interstate-15 freeway system through Davis County was completed with an off-ramp that deposited visitors near Lagoon's front gate.
After Ranch Kimball's retirement in 1970, the Freed family continued to manage the park and eventually purchased it in 1983 under the name of the Lagoon Corporation. Until his death in 1974, it was Robert Freed who was most intimately involved in developing the vision of the park. He made himself an amusement park professional, and in 1963 was named president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA).[48 - Salt Lake Tribune, July 18, 1974.]
One of the most important contributions Robert Freed made to Lagoon was to abolish race restrictions to the dance pavilion and pool that had been in place at the park since its inception. He received an award from the NAACP for his dedication to civil rights in the era before legislation. Robert E. Freed was inducted into the IAAPA Hall of Fame in 1990, the same year as Walt Disney.
Peter Freed, took over management of the park in 1974. That year Lagoon installed the Sky Ride, a tram suspended over the Midway from one end of the park to another. A second "dark" ride, Dracula's Castle, was constructed on the south side of the former dance pavilion. In 1976, another coaster-type ride, the Jet Star 2 was constructed. Peter Freed's most important accomplishment was the introduction of a second theme-area, Pioneer Village, an open-air museum, which opened in 1976 in time for America's bicentennial celebration. Pioneer Village began as the life's work of Horace A. Sorensen and his wife, Ethel Melville Sorensen, who began collecting antiques and artifacts from Utah's history in the early 1920s.
In 1948, the Sorensens opened a small museum on their three-acre horse property at 2998 S. Connor Street in the southeast Salt Lake City. Horace Sorensen rescued eighteen historic buildings and moved them to the site to better display the artifacts. The buildings include three from Rockport, Utah, that were moved before the town was inundated with water after the construction of a dam. In 1953, he presented the entire collection to the Sons of Utah Pioneers (SUP). The SUP sold Pioneer Village to Lagoon in 1975 after several years of running a deficit and the acknowledgment the Connor Street site was inaccessible to the general public and a nuisance to its residential neighbors.
The fifteen-acre Pioneer Village marked the first time the Lagoon had expanded to the east beyond the defunct Bamberger rail line. Lagoon transported both the historic buildings and a few circa 1950s replica buildings from the Connor Street location, where they had been arranged somewhat perfunctorily around an oval. At Lagoon, the museum buildings were arranged in zones. At the north end was a Mormon village with a central green. At the south end, the transportation buildings were located with access to train, wagon, and stagecoach rides. Connecting the two ends, the commercial buildings were arranged as a frontier boom town, where a Wild West musical stunt show was performed for many years. Lagoon built several replica buildings for specific parts of the collection (for example, the carriage bam for vehicles and the armory for the gun collection). The landscape of Pioneer Village includes a few items of historic street furniture and commemorative monuments. Near the entrance to Pioneer Village, Lagoon also added a few obligatory amusement park attractions: a concession stand, a shooting gallery, and the Log Flume frontier-theme thrill ride.[49 - For a more complete discussion of Pioneer Village at Lagoon, please see Korral Broschinsky, Novelty Versus Nostalgia: Historic Preservation and Museum Management of the Lagoon Amusement Park from the Lake Park Pavilion to Pioneer Village, Master's thesis, Graduate School of Architecture, University of Utah, 1997.]
The May 31, 1976 opening of Pioneer Village at Lagoon was a long anticipated event. At the time, the Lagoon location was considered an ideal solution to the problems which had plagued Pioneer Village. The museum would have more visitors and the increased space would mean that more of the artifacts would be displayed to their best advantage. Orson Wright, chairman of the Pioneer Village committee of the SUP, assured the public that "Donors of exhibits needn't worry their antiques will become part of a commercialized park ... it will be done tastefully with historical considerations utmost in our minds."[50 - 50 Salt Lake Tribune, June 10, 1975.]
As the second major themed section of Lagoon, Pioneer Village was similar to Disney's Frontierland, but with a much greater percentage of real historical artifacts.
(post-historic context)
The Freed family under the name Lagoon Corporation purchased the park from the Bamberger family in 1983.[51 - The park buildings and equipment are owned by the Lagoon Corporation. The Lagoon Investment Company currently owns the land.]
In Gary Kyriazi's history of American amusement parks published in 1976, Lagoon was described as "one of those older amusement parks which through constant renovation somewhat resembles a modem theme park, although it is basically traditional."[52 - Gary Kyriazi, The Great American Amusement Parks: A Pictorial History, (Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1976): 253.]
The management has consistently made good on its promise to add "something new each season," including eleven new coasters between 1973 and 2011.[53 - Ogden Standard-Examiner, May 28, 1965: 4. Each year Lagoon's promotional packet includes a list of attractions at the Lagoon in chronological order.]
The new coasters and other modem thrill rides are mostly located at the north and south ends of the Midway.
One of the largest modernization projects was the renovation of the swimming pool area as the Lagoon-A-Beach water park in 1989. In 1995, Lagoon introduced the Skycoaster, the first of its several premium thrill rides that required an extra charge. That year, the park also extended its season into October with the introduction of Frightmares, Halloween-themed nights and weekends at the park complete with scary music and costumed characters. In 1997, the park expanded to the east again with the installation of Rattlesnake Rapids, a water-ride that brought more foot-traffic through Pioneer Village.
Today the Lagoon Amusement Park thrives on the novelty of modern thrill rides and other new attractions each year, but many of its patrons return for the nostalgia provided by the historic rides and midway they knew as a child. Each season the park staff performs meticulous maintenance on historic rides. For example, nearly every facet of the Lagoon Carousel has been maintained since its introduction to the park in 1918. In contrast, the John A. Miller wooden roller coaster is currently being re-built with in-kind wood bents to preserve the ride experience, while meeting current safety codes. Even many of the low-profile carnival rides, such as the Flying Scooter, which was is currently known as the Flying Aces, are remembered with fondness by older patrons and discovered for the first time by younger ones. In 1996, the Utah Heritage Foundation honored Lagoon for its commitment to historic preservation. Because of these efforts, elements from all periods of the park's history provide a rich experience for over one million visitors to the Lagoon Amusement Park each year.
###