Lake Park, Lagoon forerunner in 1888. -From Utah State Historical Society.
By Lynn Arave
Lake Park,” forerunner to Lagoon, began on the shores of the Great Salt Lake.
Lake Park,” forerunner to Lagoon, began on the shores of the Great Salt Lake.
This “Lagoon” was about 3 miles southwest of today’s theme Park
and west of the western end of today’s Clark Lane. It was promoted as one of
the “most attractive watering places in the west.” It encompassed
215-acres and existed for about nine years there.
Utahns in the late 1800s loved their Great Salt Lake, where
they could float like a cork and the original Lagoon capitalized on that
popularity.
Railroad magnate Simon Bamberger, later Utah’s first ever
Democratic governor in 1917, started Lake Park in 1886 to attract large crowds
from Salt Lake County and to increase traffic on his railroad line.
Bamberger, more well known by Utah residents for the “Bamberger”
railroad than as the father of Lagoon, built an approximate two-mile spur
line off the main D & R.G.W. line to reach Lake Park Resort.
Approxinately 53,000 guests visited the park in 1886. Admission in those days was 50 cents. Swimming,
dancing, boating, a merry-go-round pulled by a horse, target shooting, roller
skating and bowling were all included for that price. An extra half-dollar provided
a full course meal at the resort’s restaurant.
For its premiere season, the resort had 15 dozen men’s and
three dozen women’s swimming suits available for rent. To help prevent
theft, “Lake Park Resort” was written across the front of the suits.
There were six trains a day, painted in a Tuscan red, going to
Lake Park from Salt Lake City and three a day coming from Ogden. A
sailboating racing and a rowing club also had headquarters at Lake Park.
It also boasted of its open air dancing pavilion with
finely carved archways and lattice.
Summer cottages at the site were rented by the day or
month. By one account, it even had a small Victorian style hotel and a
string of cabins along the beach.
The main pavilion was 3,600-square feet, flanked on the
north by a restaurant, 30 X 60 feet in size and on the south by an equal
sized saloon. On the west was a pier, about 150 feet in length. Bath
houses were north and south of the pier. The railroad passenger platform
was on the east side of the large pavilion. There were also a dozen round
picnic houses, covered with green ivy, and having tables underneath them.
Many Farmington residents would simply walk to Lake Park for a
daily outing. Boat races and footraces were also popular events at
Lake Park.
However, by 1895, the resort was suffering. The Great Salt Lake
was still receding and now approaching its average level of 4,200 feet
above sea level.
What was once the lake shore was now a sticky, blue-colored
mud that shunned swimmers. It would
have required a walk through muddy and smelly salt flats of some one-third
mile or more to reach the actual lake water. Then, it would have been another
long
walk to reach water deep enough to swim.
Bamberger decided to move the resort eastward. He purchased
what was then some 40 acres of swampy farmland, where noisy
bullfrogs roamed, from Farmington farmers for his new location in the mid
1890s. (Some reports refer to the Lagoon site as natural meadows).
Bamberger had the land graded and the swamp excavated to make a four-foot-deep
lake.
The iconic wooden roller coaster arrived in 1921.
Some accounts state it was actually two large ponds. In any
event, the two lakes eventually became one large lake and also one that
was larger than the one in use today - maybe almost twice as big. The
frogs were sold as delicacies to Montana mining camps.
The original Lagoon location thrived as a salt works extraction
area for almost 30 years until similar enterprises in Northern Utah put it out
of business. The railroad tracks to the area were removed in 1925, due to a
lack of usage.
A portion of the area where Lake Park was.
-Visiting Lagoon’s original location today (spring of 2016) reveals no obvious signs that a resort and railroad line were ever in the area.
And, the Great Salt Lake –with its almost record low levels – is presently nowhere
to be seen in the area either.
Birds love the old Lake Park area today. Photo by Taylor Arave.
A horse ranch, pastures and wetlands dominate
the former Lake Park Resort area, some 121 years after it moved.
A receding Great Salt Lake has left the old Lake Park area high and dry.
(-Originally published on Aug. 29, 2016 in the Ogden Standard-Examiner by Lynn Arave, in the Wasatch View section.)
