Ode to the Original

When I was growing up the annual summer launch event was the first trio of the season to Eliches.  A little history for those of you not native to Denver.  Eliches is the local amusement park.  Other Denverites are probably rolling their eyes right now because I am not mentioning Lakeside....the omission of Lakeside in the list of amusement parks in Denver is not a mistake.  Eliches used to be located on Tennyson, not particularly near any landmark that would draw tourists to visit.  It was very small, but it was original.  I believe it opened at the end of the 19th century, somewhere around 1890 or so, and when we used to take our annual summer pilgrimage to Eliches nostalgia would cover you like a cloak.  As soon as you walked through the gate you were surrounded by the familiar sounds of the park, the bells and alarms of people winning their favorite carnival games, the smell of cotton candy and felafels.  If you turned to your right, you could stand in line for your first ride on Mister Twister, the larger of the two wooden roller coasters in the park.  It was a deceptively long line as it twisted and turned underneath part of the very coaster you were eagerly and patiently waiting to ride. 

If roller coasters weren't something you liked to ride, everyone liked to ride Denver's answer to Pirates of the Caribbean.  The original log ride.  The inevitable long ride was worth it, as it was, at one time at least, the only "water" ride.  You knew once you passed the gum tree that you were almost ready to get on the ride.  The gum tree was a park favorite and certainly something that everyone knew about it.  It was about a million year old pine tree of some sort that everyone stuck their chewed gum into.  The gum tree was the landmark of the park.  Once you boarded your log, where you would sit one in front of the other, four to a log (kind of like the Matterhorn).  You would float through this old miners scene where animatronics brought alive the men and women of the gold rush era, those who founded Colorado.  You heard their miners songs and watched as they worked, and at the end of the ride your log was put on a rubber assembly line and pulled up a steep hill.  Once at the top you would gently round a curve and then go careening down a hill at what seemed like a million miles an hour.  Even though my skin would burn whenever the log ride water would splash on me it was, by far, my favorite ride.

Not far from the log ride was the second wooden roller coaster, the Wildcat.  This was a shorter ride than the other coaster, but much more rickety and brain damage inducing.  After exiting that ride I felt giddy and excited, but not unlike what I imagine a shaken baby must feel like.  From the exit of the Wildcat, you could walk a few more steps to the back of the park and enter kiddie land.  When I was very young, there were two rides that we ALWAYS had to ride.  I am using the word "ride" very loosely here.  First were the boats.  This was the ride that you could only go on as a small child and you would get in a little boat and drive around a little tank.  The boats were on arms, so the kids never were controlling them, but when you are 5 there is something liberating about getting on a ride that your mom can't get on with you and that you get to have a steering wheel.  Of course, fights would always ensue as there was only one steering wheel and of course every kid wanted to sit in the seat with the steering wheel.  The other ride in kiddie land was the car ride.  Basically this was the same premise as the boat ride, where you get to "drive" a car around a little town.  Very similar to Autopolis at Disneyland.  The cars are on a track and would travel at the astonishing rate of 1-2 miles per hour, but it was a car and little kids could drive.

Ahh, what a nice trip down memory lane.  I got to thinking about this- the Original Eliche Gardens- a couple of weeks ago when talking to a kid at work.  This kid is probably in his early 20's (remember when we were in OUR early 20's?) and I asked him what he had done over the weekend.  He mentioned that he had a season pass to Eliches so he went there with some friends.  When he said that I asked him if he liked Eliches downtown better than the "old" Eliches.  His response was "I really didn't notice much of a difference when it was Six Flags."  I chuckled and told him that I meant that I like the original Eliches, the one with the gum tree.  He looked at me like I had a third eye or a tail.  I went on to tell him about the original location of Eliches and watched his face as he must have been internally dismissing the bat shit crazy old lady (who he constantly ma'ams) sitting in front of him.  I had to google it- I had to show him that Eliches as he knows it isn't the original, and in my opinion, isn't even on the same coolness scale as the original. 

I wonder what happened to the gum tree?  They should have put the gum tree at DIA instead of that stupid small headed blue horse.  What better a landmark than the gum tree?