Lakeside Amusement Park

Lakeside Amusement Park is actually more visible from the highway than Elitch Gardens. It's also a lot easier to access. It sits on a full city block, bounded on one side by Lake Rhoda and IR-70, and on the others by Harlan St., 44th Ave, and Sheridan Road. Sheridan is the real key, as that is where you find the "front" of the park, which features a large tower covered with hundreds of incandescent lights. Apparently the park was once known as "White City" (along with perhaps dozens of other parks of the age) and this tower is similar to the tower which was the centerpiece of the original White City amusement park on Coney Island. But while the tower is a landmark for finding Lakeside, the incandescent lights on the tower are not the park's most distinguishing feature.

Parking access is just South of the park on Sheridan. There is a check-point here, but the $2 being collected is not a parking fee, but rather a general admission fee. So it is $2 per person, and parking is technically free. Kind of like Idlewild, actually. If you don't believe this, come by bus and enter through the gate under the tower. You still pay the $2. But it isn't really $2. You hand over your $2, and the park immediately gives you $0.50 back in the form of a voucher good for use as a single ride ticket, or as a discount on a ride wristband. Entering the park from the parking lot kind diminishes the impact of the place a little, as you come in past some back-end services, the center cage from an Eyerly Spider, a couple of broken Go-Karts and a section of kiddie rides including a (I think) Schiff kiddie coaster. I failed to ask if I could ride. Once past the kiddie rides, you begin to get a feel for what Lakeside is all about. What the park is all about is art-deco styling, and lots and lots of neon. This is a VERY traditional amusement park, and one of the first things I noticed (besides the styling) is that almost every ride has a ticket booth out front. Most of these ticket booths are long since disused, and I hate to think about the kind of staffing the park would require to actually use all those booths. But the buildings are still intact, and they give us a glimpse into how the park once operated. Now only a few booths in strategic locations are actually operational. Strangely enough, the one on the roller coaster is not one of them.

The next thing I noticed was the incredible collection of classic iron rides. A park-model Flying Scooter opened my evening, although the ride was extremely short. Nearby are an Eli Wheel, and a 12-car Whip surrounded by a low concrete wall. I noticed that between the (disused) ticket booth and the Whip ride is a terrazzo floor with an inlaid geometric design. The park has a glass house, almost every kind of *-O-Plane you can think of (except "Fly-"), a Scrambler, a set of electric bumper boats, a set of bumper cars, a Tilt-A-Whirl and a Klaus Satellite Jet. More about that one in a moment. Nearer to the back of the park they have an Intamin Flying Dutchman and a Mack Matterhorn. And of course they have the two coasters, the Cyclone and the Wild Chipmunk. I've been told that I should ride the train, but unfortunately the train ride was not operational. The closest I came (besides looking at the station) was the Zamperla Dragon, which I rode and added to my collection of "!coasters ridden".

Of course, I spent most of the night on the Cyclone. It's an ACE Coaster Classic and an ACE Coaster Landmark, built in 1940 by Ed Vettel [Footnote 1]. it only took me a few moments to start noticing the 'family resemblance' between the Cyclone and another Vettel coaster, the Blue Streak at Conneaut Lake. It starts with the painting next to the tunnel which is supposed to show the locations of cars on the course. It's less obvious than the one at Conneaut, and all of its light bulbs are missing, but it is there and it is in the same style [Footnote 2]. Of course, the classic train (though it is different in style from the one at Conneaut) is another key, as is the very long, dark tunnel that starts the ride. But the most important feature that identifies the Cyclone as a Vettel coaster is the track configuration. Cyclone features that odd track with the thin (only two or three layers) rails sitting atop the track ties and supported by a lower trackbed that sits on the bents. I think this track also has an angle-iron upstop surface above the guide wheel, instead of offset upper layers, suggesting that the train may not use separate up-stops, relying instead on the guide wheels as on a couple of the Kennywoodies, or that the up-stop is a flat bar instead of a wheel (I didn't actually get to crawl underneath and look...).

The station is a sight to behold. It has a beautiful facade, with some really intricate details. Most obvious are the medallions showing people riding in a coaster car that make up part of the station railing. Attached to the ceiling is a number annunciator similar to that found in some restaurants, and one of the operators suggested to me that the ride once ran single cars instead of a train, and that the number box was for keeping track of the cars on the ride. The cars are a modernized classical design, with generously padded, undivided seats and fixed lap bars. The safety belt is a nylon strap with rings on one side and a very large hook on the other that looks like it might be OSHA approved for use in fall protection systems. One odd thing about the train: The nosepiece for each car is actually Fiberglas. I guess that's one of those enthusiast double standard things...if it's a Fiberglas train body, it's garbage, if it's a Fiberglas nose piece on a wooden train chassis, it's classic.

Like the Blue Streak, Cyclone begins with a long, winding tunnel to get from the station to the base of the lift. Going up the lift hill you can see into the space between the tunnel and the station and see that there are four sweeps for an Eyerly Spider stored there. Hmmm...I wonder where the other two are hiding. Unlike the Blue Streak, the first drop is a swooping curve to the left. The banking increases until the train gets to the bottom, then it unrolls just in time for a sudden left-hand curve that slams you hard into the right-hand side of the train. This is where I learned very quickly to sit with my back against the right-hand side of the seat. After that one slam, though, the ride settles down nicely and the rest of the ride is a nice collection of hills and curves. It's kind of interesting that the train apparently requires a very slow roll rate, so slow that there are straightaways on the ride that are actually banked pretty significantly. Towards the end of the ride, as it heads for the brake run, you can really see this from the back of the train as the train very slowly rolls out to a level course. I don't mean the train is moving slowly, I mean it is rolling very slowly from right to left, requiring several car lengths to unroll just a few degrees. This slow roll rate may explain the violence after the bottom of the first drop. Except for that one spot, the ride runs very nicely, with very little bounce. The one spot before the second hill, the hard slam to the right that I'm surprised didn't leave me bruised, really needs to be fixed, but apart from that, this is a really nice coaster. So long as I ride with my back against the right side of the car, it's even very re-rideable.

On the midway side of the Cyclone are a Scrambler and a Spider. Or rather, there are spaces for a Scrambler and a Spider. In fact, the Spider, as I have alluded to a couple of times, is in pieces and scattered all over the park. Over at its home, there is a totally unnecessary sign which states, "NOTICE: Closed for Maintenance." Um, yeah, I kind of gathered that when I saw that the ride was completely MISSING.

Across the way, past the derelict building called, "Riviera", is the park's other coaster, the Wild Chipmunk. It's an old-school all-steel Wild Mouse coaster, and while it is violent, it is also a lot of fun. The cars feature in-line seating with so much padding around the edge of the top opening, it was a tight squeeze getting in and out. The ride is one of those classic ultra-violent Wild Mouse rides with the really steep drops, really tight hairpin turns, and a general impression that you are about to go flying off into space. It's a neat ride, and I have to at least mention the operators who were unusually pleasant on this ride.

The other specific ride I wanted to talk about is the Klaus Satellite Jet ride over by the lake. This particular one is 'incognito'...it is masquerading as a Roto-Jet. The difference between the Roto-Jet and the Satellite Jet is the behavior of the center when the ring carrying the sweeps rises up the center column. On the Roto-Jet, the center ring goes straight up. On the Satellite Jet, there is a frame attached to the ring and the center column is mounted on a pivot so that when the ring goes up, the center tilts towards the operator booth. Lakeside's ride is a Satellite Jet but the tilting frame is missing and the base of the tower is somehow secured. So instead of tilting over as it should, the tower kind of wobbles a bit but remains generally vertical. The wobble is more than a little disconcerting when you're riding...it's almost imperceptible as you watch the ride from the ground, but of course it is multiplied and magnified by the length of the sweep. I wonder if the park ever plans to restore this ride and make it tilt properly again.

Speaking of rides in need of restoration, the park has a unique piece of equipment called the Staride. It looks like a derelict Ferris wheel, and Norman Anderson describes it in his book about Ferris wheels as a large, high-speed ride. At the moment it is a no-speed-at-all ride, with no passenger tubs and a few "NO TRESPASSING" signs on it. The other derelict ride in the park isn't really a derelict. It's a Traver Circle Swing tower, which has survived, but no longer carries airships or rocket ships or whatever. The tower now serves as a light tower, and the building is a games stand. Besides, with the trees surrounding the tower, there is no way that it could accommodate rocket ships today!

I wonder about the history of Lakeside park. I understand that the Whip was recently restored, and the park has ride pieces and a disused race track and grandstand on site. I have to wonder if there was a time when nobody cared about Lakeside Park and the place was allowed to fall into disrepair. That clearly isn't the case today, as the park is clearly being lovingly cared for. It reminds me a lot of what is happening right now with Camden Park, where the park is recovering from a period of blight and decay. Today, Lakeside is in good condition, and it is clear that the famous Rhoda, whoever she is, is committed to maintaining and restoring the park. I'm happy to learn that, because Lakeside is truly a jewel of an amusement park, a rare example of a vanishing breed of local urban parks. Every city needs a park like this one.

You've probably noticed that there are no photographs in this report. That's because there is a whole photo gallery dedicated to Lakeside Park. Follow this link to see it!

Footnote 1: ...whose name is misspelled "Vetiel" on the ACE Landmark sign... [Return to text]

Footnote 1: Yes, I am aware that the painting at Conneaut Lake supposedly came from West View Park. [Return to text]

Trip Report: Lakeside Amusement Park Denver, Colorado - 06/21/2006

Trip Report: Lakeside Amusement Park
Denver, Colorado - 06/21/2006