Tyson Romero and Craig Wirth

2 hours in the past

FARMINGTON, Utah (ABC4) — Every yr, guests from across the nation make their approach to Lagoon amusement park right here in Utah. It’s been a go-to vacation spot for enjoyable occasions occurring 137 years now, however many park-goers probably don’t know the historical past of how Lagoon got here to be.

It all began in the summertime of 1886, when it first opened on the shores of the Great Salt Lake with the identify “Lake Park.”

Upon opening, native newspapers advised of the wondrous entertainment there for guests, together with an open-air dance pavilion, roller-skating rink, bowling alley, water sports activities, and mule-drawn merry-go-round.

As water ranges within the Great Salt Lake had been receding dramatically round 1899, railroad tycoon and proprietor Simon Bamberger determined to move the resort further inland to the place it now sits in Farmington. Along with the transfer, it was given the identify “Lagoon” — impressed by the nine-acre pond by which it was constructed.

This transfer would deliver guests from all corners of the state, with an estimated 6,000 friends exhibiting up at Lagoon on Labor Day in 1901.

As its reputation grew, so too did the points of interest. The famed Carousel arrived within the park by 1906, that includes 45 hand-carved, hand-painted horses, amongst different characters — nonetheless there for guests to get pleasure from right now as Lagoon’s oldest attraction. Its Roller Coaster was launched in the course of the Twenties, now one of many oldest working wood coasters on the earth.

After the park closed for 4 years throughout World War II, it was bought by Robert E. Freed, whose household nonetheless owns the park to this present day.

Much of the park was destroyed by a massive fire in 1953 — an incident that reportedly took the work of 500 firefighters to place out. Following this, Lagoon was rapidly rebuilt and reopened beneath the administration of Freed, with new points of interest added for guests younger and previous.

By the Nineteen Sixties, the park had entered its “Golden Age,” internet hosting famend entertainers akin to Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, amongst many others.

Up to 1965, Jim Crow legal guidelines banned African-Americans from sure areas of the park. In response, Robert E. Freed efficiently fought these ordinances to permit all races to enter Lagoon with out restriction.

The Freed household would turn out to be the only house owners of Lagoon by the Eighties, making it the United States’ largest family-owned amusement park.

Through the Nineteen Nineties into the 2000s, a collection of different thrill-seeking points of interest got here to the park, together with Wild Mouse, Wicked, Rattlesnake Rapids, and Cannibal — the steepest rollercoaster in the country.

Today, after 137 years as Utah’s most cherished amusement park, Lagoon is seeing new generations of tourists making recollections as they reminisce on its lengthy historical past of leisure.