Show Saltair resort as it looked before destruction by 1925 fire Hippodrome left the arena for sporting events was not rebuilt after blaze r aded Lady Ti ECORATION DAT traction and tho number one amusement Center in the Intermountain West Her dance hall was the biggest in America her sunsets the grandest and her giant racer packed the biggest thrill this side of Coney Island Her fame sped around the world carried on postcards showing bathers floating like a cork in the dense saline water and by glowing reports from travelers A tourist wouldn’t think of leav- ing the state without riding to Saltair for thrills and a dip in Utah’s fabulous Dead Sea This was back in the early years of the century Women's bathing suits were a full length monstrosity and an affront to nature The airplane was still a distant miracle the automobile an alarming novelty to man and beast and the movies a flickering infant ENTERTAINMENT wasn’t piped to living room screens in those days You had to hunt for amusement And everyone found it at Saltair formally opened the reIntermountain West but someseason in the sort thing was missing For the first time since it was originally built 66 years ago Saltair reIn the mained buttoned up — a $520000 recreation world Three concessionaires have turned thumbs down on the fun palace refusing to operate It without a subsidy from the state according to Chester J Olsen director of the State Park and Recreation Commission Unable to hold her own with younger forms of entertainment Saltair became a ward of the state last January But there was a time when the Lady of the Lake was the queen of them all has-bee- n SHE WAS HOSTESS to visiting celebrities from all over the world and staged everything from boxing matches to bullfights She was second only to Temple Square as a tourist at w vV v!£ " ' edf i S 7 v h1 Y V 4 A - 4 -- A' V Y V - ‘ s I a 3 A f'V : 9 - V rt ’N A t V v V Ay J JP v A £- A' ' wKU ’ S I ' wtt -- - - -MY 7- ' p W 1 jp¥? ' r w W T — Tr r' t vxw C JY-- " v rt fL X A v A H- w-- 1 4 w ItrA V df ifnfv for floating and fun Recreation mecca of the west people came from all over the world i Salt Lake City Sunday May 31 1959 t v at the lakeside ipa 'x -- v It was the first choice for outings by business civic and church groups It was the place where the whole family went on weekends to enjoy the rides and the “Old Mill" funhouse demolish a picnic basket full of sandwiches and goodies then feed the scraps to the hundreds of ducks and seagulls filling the air and dotting the waves below the west windows of the pavilion It was not unusual for 10000 persons to romp at the resort daily And this when Salt Lake City population was only 93000 compared with today’s 220000 No resort before or since has become so solidly woven into the recreational and sentimental fabric of the community And everyone felt a deep personal loss when the resort burned to the ground in the fire of April 1925 Nature which gives Saltair its beautiful setting has also been its constant enemy— wind water or fire frequently plaguing the resort since it was first built in 1893 A BLAZE IN 1939 destroyed a pier and another in 1951 chewed a $10000 swath through bathhouses and concessions The roller coaster completely destroyed in the 1925 fire was under reconstruction in May 1932 when a windstorm toppled it again killing two workmen It was finally rebuilt only to be tom apart by another windstorm in August 1957 The shaky portion left standing was dismantled to remove the hazard Farther back in February 1910 a windstorm picked up 200 bathhouses and paved the beach with kindling There were then 1100 Individual bathhouses built in six tiers extending 450 feet into the lake Two months later on April 4 another storm washed away 500 feet of the main pier with 325 bathhouses 100 yards of railroad track and damaged the “Old Mill’’ and roller coaster for a total of $10000 Three weeks later the same structures were hit again to the tune of $1000 That’s the year the first boxing match was conducted in the arena of the Hippodrome a building south of the center pavilion “Wild West Shows’’ were held here The entertainment was rugged and the resort saloon did a big business BULLFIGHTS were staged by a matador and 20 toreadors Imported from Mexico Under state humane laws the bullfighters had to use wooden swords in the exhibition and not Injure the animals The Andalusian bulls under no tuch restraint took a heavy toll of toreadors that season Several were trampled or tossed In the air and (Continued on Page $) ft |