Between 1895 and 1920 almost 5,000 amusement parks were built in the United States, with most major cities have one or two. Denver, constantly trying to shed its cow town image, has been home to eight amusement parks since the 1890s. Lakeside and Elitch's are the best known, and longest lasting of the parks, but find out about four little-known and short-lived parks that used to call the area home.
David Forsyth Biography:
David Forsyth has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is the director of the Gilpin Historical Society. He is the author of Images of America: Black Hawk and Central City, Denver’s Lakeside Amusement Park: From the White City Beautiful to a Century of Fun, and Eben Smith: The Dean of Western Mining, and the forthcoming The Amusement Park at Sloan's Lake: The Lost History of Denver's Manhattan Beach. His articles on topics that include bars, murders, bowling alleys, and amusement parks, and horror movie hosts have appeared in Colorado Heritage, International Bowling Industry, Annals of Wyoming, and the National Amusement Park Historical Association Chronicle among others.