Quick: Name a few things in town that have been around longer than Elitch Gardens, Denver’s biggest amusement park.
What about the county of Denver itself, which was whittled out of a chunk of Arapahoe County in 1902?
Or the Buckhorn Exchange, that game-crazy restaurant that was granted the state’s first-ever liquor license in 1893?
Try again.
Founded in 1890, Elitch’s is the oldest amusement park west of the Mississippi River. It’s older than many of Denver’s most recognizable landmarks and neighborhoods.
In fact, at the ripe old age of 120, Elitch’s is a mere 14 years younger than Colorado’s own statehood, which arrived in 1876. (For the record, only a few Front Range entities best Elitch’s, including the 133-year-old Denver Press Club — the nation’s oldest — and the official city of Denver, founded as a mining town in 1858.)
Of course, Elitch Gardens is more name and concept than physical space, having moved and morphed over the years from its original incarnation at West 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street to its 70-acre home today in the Central Platte Valley.
“Think about Elitch’s and the place it’s held in this community,” said Randal Drew, the soft-spoken, Southern-accented president of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Elitch owner Parc Management.
“The first theater. The first movie house. The first zoo. The first symphony orchestra. As Denver grew, so grew Elitch’s.”
It only makes sense, then, that Drew visited the Mile High City a couple of weeks ago to assess Elitch’s in advance of its 120th-anniversary celebrations — and to address recent criticisms leveled at the park, including some that appeared in this newspaper.
“We’re not Six Flags,” Drew said, referring to Elitch’s owner from 1998 to 2006. “We’re a very different group and have a different operating philosophy. And it’s important to us that we be part of the community.”
That may be true, but Elitch’s remains competitive with Denver’s other attractions by being a modern-day thrill-ride and water park — even if its reputation was forged as a picnic-friendly urban garden.
Elitch’s is held to a high standard, and it should be. The name is as much a part of Denver’s historical identity as our mining claims and mountain backdrops.
But some have argued that Elitch’s lost its unique character when it moved to the Central Platte Valley in 1995, that it’s now just another cookie-cutter slab of concrete and steel plagued by the same problems as other corporate amusement parks: long lines, unruly teenagers (the cliche scourge of all public entertainment) and overpriced products.
Parc Management and Elitch’s more than 1,500 seasonal employees are meeting those criticisms head on. Parc has invested about $20 million into the park in its three years of ownership. Last month it hired a new general manager, Steve Honeycutt, who believes earnestly in the park’s transformative power.
“People come when they’re young and come when they’re old, too,” Honeycutt said. “They do all those other (negative) things folks talk about, but there’s a certain segment of the population that just loves the product we have to offer, because it’s not just rides. There are so many different things to do.”
Elitch’s is attempting to highlight those things with its 120th-anniversary week, which takes place July 4-10. The park is bringing in community and nonprofit groups, presenting a beefed-up series of pop-music concerts and advertising discounts and special offers to various segments of the community.
“The role of a park is improving communities,” Drew said. “It suspends the realities and stresses of the daily grind and becomes a sanctuary where you can play with your friends and create memories.”
If that all sounds a bit Pollyanna, Drew at least comes off as sincere, and a visit to the park late last week reinforced his commitment to renewal and reinvestment.
Gel-coated fiberglass finishes make six of the waterslides brighter, faster and smoother. New coats of paint all around enliven both the look of the roller coasters and the dozens of food and drink shacks that dot the park. More than 240,000 LED lights were replaced on the Ferris wheel. And with concerts from pop acts such as Third Eye Blind, Boys Like Girls and Jason Derulo, the general- entertainment pronouncements are more than just lip service.
“This year, we’ll give $1.2 million of tickets to the Denver libraries to support their reading programs, so that as children read they get tickets to Elitch’s,” Drew said.
“A lot of these (criticisms) of Elitch’s are issues about people and communities, and who are these people and how do they react when they’re together? That’s a messy thing sometimes when you’re in the people business, but at the same time we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. We love what we do. We still think that we can do better, and we should do better, and we will.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
