![]() If the roller coaster was near the entrance to Woodland Park, the stone Jevens found might well have been from the Daisy Dozer. lists Woodland Park at the east end of Twelfth Street." Mole indicates, "the 1919 city directory. Lawrencian Betty Mole wrote a letter to Watkins Museum on Jan. Two known photos of the roller coaster - on file at the Watkins Community Museum of History - don't give much indication of where it stood in the 40-some acre park.Įven the location of the park itself was misidentified by David Dary in his 1992 book "Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas: An Informal History." There, the west side of the park is identified as Thirteenth Street and Learnard Avenue. That certainly seems possible, but it's just as likely that no one will ever know for sure. "Who knows, that stone could have been part of the roller coaster." "For some reason I pictured that those rides, like the roller coaster, were right here," she says while giving a tour through the wooded park north of 12th Street and Prospect Avenue. So when she stumbled upon a concrete pillar that looked like it had been there for more than a few decades, she wondered. Jevens also knew that Woodland Park had been located near her home in the Brook Creek neighborhood. "The first of its kind in the city, with a merry-go-round, a shoot-the-shoots, a Ferris wheel, a dance-hall, and a bandstand for weekend concerts." Hughes' first novel, "Not Without Laughter," alludes to Woodland Park: ![]() Lawrencian-by-way-of-Wisconsin Jill Jevens knows about Woodland Park, though, thanks to one of the subjects she teaches at South Junior High School - namely, the work of former Lawrencian and world-renowned poet, Langston Hughes. It didn't leave much of a mark - even the history books have but trace mentions of the "Daisy Dozer" and the once-grand Woodland Park. ![]() It's perhaps little surprise then that it had one of the U.S.'s earliest roller coasters back in 1910, just 25 years after Coney Island opened the first one.Īnyway, you could hardly be faulted for not knowing there was ever a roller coaster here, much less at the turn of the century. Lawrence has long prided itself on being a progressive town, a town that keeps up with the times. This concrete block in the woods near 12th and Prospect might have been a footing for one of the roller coaster's supports, says neighbor and South Junior High School teacher Jill Jevens. ![]()
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