GOLDEN — Carnies, connoisseurs of vintage goods and groupies of a bygone theme park crammed into kiddie-ride compartments Thursday morning, searching out a place to sit while they of the Old West-themed Heritage Square Amusement Park.
After more than 50 years of ups, downs, drops, squeals and delights, the park originally envisioned as a Disneyland of the West — created, even, with the help of erstwhile Disney theme-park visionaries — met a different fate than that coastal amusement icon.
, and Thursday brought the final nail in its fun-house coffin as attendees turned out to bid farewell — and for the park’s rides.
Thursday’s auction capped off the slow demise of Heritage Square, brought about by the company’s settlement with landlord Martin Marietta Materials, which plans to redevelop the site off West Colfax Avenue near Interstate 70.
The Heritage Square Music Hall once brought dinner-theater performances to audiences inside a building erected in 1973 before shutting down at the end of its 2013 season. In 2015, Heritage Square announced it was closing at the end of that year and shutting down its popular Alpine Slide ride. The amusement park lived on sans slide but lost adjacent attractions, including the Miners Maze Adventureland and specialty retail shops.
“We had a good 20-year run with me, and, in the end, we worked something out that was very acceptable, so it’s bittersweet,” said Alan Bader, the park’s final owner.
Heritage Square served as the backdrop for Jodee Kesten’s most precious memories with her children for almost 20 years: watching her kids learn how to fish at the park’s old trout pond, hosting her son’s third birthday on the grounds, and riding the Scrambler with her daughter.
When the Evergreen security guard heard about the park’s going-out-of-business auction, she begged her boss to let her work security inside the event so she could say her last goodbyes. Tears welled behind her aviator sunglasses as she walked the grounds she’d guarded and recreated on countless times before.
“It’s just so sad,” Kesten said. “This is a very important part of my life. This closing is an iconic moment.”
“You don’t find it like this anymore”
An auctioneer speaking so fast it made bidders’ heads spin like the teacups ride was wheeled around the park atop a mobile podium, barking out prices in a way that made it clear everything had to go. The rides and games were a given, but even the fences, heat lamps, benches and trash-can covers were up for grabs.
Terry G. Hart, a Washington County commissioner, snatched up the park’s beloved swing ride for $13,000. The teeny multicolored seats will now hold northeastern Colorado kids during the county’s five-day carnival.
“This is going to be nice for our little ones,” Hart said.
Trevor Fritzler, of the near La Salle, spent $11,000 on Heritage Square’s banana squadron, which once sent young ones up in the air behind the wheel of a flying banana. Fritzler plans on giving the bananas a paint job to make them look like corn cobs for either his family’s corn maze or his buddy’s in Utah.
Bryan Beckett nabbed himself a one-of-a-kind Halloween outfit, spending $400 on a full-sized bear costume — the park’s mascot, Nickels. Beckett had been coming to Heritage Square since he was “this big,” he said, popping his hand out next to his waist. He wanted a piece of it.
“This stuff is quality vintage, and you don’t find it like this anymore,” he said. “There’s a coin-operated frog ride in the arcade that would look excellent in a basement or backyard that I’m eyeing.”
Bader, the park’s owner, stood among the crowd as they bought up his cherished attractions. He said he remembers his two teenage daughters’ childhoods in terms of which Heritage Square attractions they were big enough to ride.
“When they were 1, they couldn’t do much of anything, but then they could do the swing … and then they could do the go-karts and so on,” said Bader, who took over the historic Golden amusement park in 1999. “Now they’re 15 and 13, and it’s sad that their dad no longer owns an amusement park, but when it really counted in their younger years, they were very popular at school.”
Bader signed a 20-year lease before the new millennium after reading a book titled “Zen and the Art of Making a Living,” which helped the then-East Coast commercial real estate broker determine he was suited for a business in family entertainment. Purchasing a theme park in the West seemed more manageable, so Bader took on Heritage Square and built up the park year after year with attractions fit for the family: bumper boats, a zipline, kiddie coasters and beyond.
“We didn’t have the big thrill rides, but we had the types of attractions that adults and children could enjoy together and interact with one another,” Bader said. “That was our niche. We weren’t Elitch’s, and we weren’t Lakeside, and that was OK.”
“Just have to keep putt-putting along”
Bader admitted the park had its quirks.
During Kesten’s final patrol of the grounds Thursday, she pointed up to one of the original building’s windows with shredded, white curtains that practically pleaded for a ghostly figure to stand behind them.
“You know this place is haunted, right,” Kesten said, explaining that she and the rest of the security team assigned to the park in recent years traded ghost stories about what happened to them while on duty. They watched curtains flutter, saw unexplained humans and animals appear late at night when the park was cleared out, and heard voices when no one was there.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this place has a ton of paranormal activity,” Kesten said. “We all just expect it and know that it happens here.”
But some of the less spooky quirks were what made the Heritage Square’s customer base keep coming back, Bader said. Things such as free parking, no entrance fees and the ability to bring in your own food set the park apart from its peers.
“It was great for families who couldn’t necessarily afford some of the bigger price tags,” Bader said.
For Linda Wynn, the park encompassed family in a different way. The rides, the grounds, the customers and her fellow employees who became friends made up Wynn’s chosen family.
“It was home,” said Wynn, who started working in Heritage Square’s old-time photo shop about 30 years ago.
Wynn fell head over heels for Heritage Square’s miniature golf courses, managing to squeeze in at least one game every day for decades, even coming in on her days off to take a few swings. Wynn, who lives down the street from the park, convinced Bader to open the two courses during the winter offseason so she could keep playing and earn the park a few extra bucks.
“That course is so much fun,” Wynn said. “Do you know how hard it is to get a hole-in-one? I got a few, but mostly it’s a great walk with beautiful flowers and waterfalls. It’s gorgeous.”
Wynn went to Thursday’s auction for one final round before what felt like a painful breakup.
“It’s like my family has dispersed, and it’s a sad day indeed,” Wynn said. “I just have to keep putt-putting along.”
Disneyland of the West
The park’s origin story foretold much grander plans for the Golden attraction.
In 1952, Denver businessman Walter Francis Cobb and sculptor John Calvin Sutton imagined creating a family fun center in Colorado named Magic Mountain. Their idea emerged right around the time departed Disneyland vice president Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood Jr. was looking to build miniature versions of the happiest place on Earth across the country, according to the Golden Landmarks Association.
Magic Mountain was born in 1957 with the hope of being a Disneyland offshoot in the heart of the Denver metro area, themed after the Old West of 1858. Wade B. Rubottom helped design many of the historical buildings using the forced perspective technique he had perfected while working on Disneyland’s Main Street USA.
After a three-year spell, Magic Mountain succumbed to shaky financial footing and closed in 1960. It would be more than a decade before anyone successfully resurrected the park. In 1971, the Woodmoor Corp. reopened the attraction as Heritage Square. Owners came and went, with Bader buying the park in the late 1990s.
Heritage Square’s adoring fans would argue the magic never left.
Aaron Edwards, of Westminster, drove out Thursday morning to catch a glimpse of where he landed his first job in 1984, when he was 13 years old. Edwards said he operated just about every ride at the park, taking particular joy in showing off his skills with the strongman game that required a hard hit with a rubber hammer-like object.
“I could ring the top bell dozens of times in a row, and it would draw in all kinds of guys who wanted to show off too,” Edwards said. “But then they couldn’t do it. I knew just the sweet spot and how hard you had to hit it. That was so fun.”
Edwards remembers the park’s heyday, when it was tough to even walk through the rides because it was so packed.
“I have so many memories here,” Edwards said. “It makes me sad to see all this going away.”
Heritage Square’s tilt-a-whirl had a claim to fame as the ride used in the 1962 film “State Fair” starring Pat Boone and Ann-Margret.
“People would want to ride in all of the cars so they could ride in the same car that Ann rode in,” Bader said. “I actually get sick on a lot of these rides. I’ve owned the tilt-a-whirl for 20 years, but I haven’t ridden it once.”
Local and national amusement park enthusiasts — including — raised their auction numbers in the air for hours Thursday until nearly everything was claimed, each piece destined for a new life of making kids smile.
“I’m telling you, I could write a book on all the things I’ve seen here as a mother bringing my kids, and as security,” Keston said. “College kids who loved the park when they were little come back to show their girlfriend. People were married in the old chapel here and come on their anniversary. Teenagers bring their first dates. Maybe I will write a book. There are too many stories here we can’t forget.”
