Showcasing the Legacy of Lagoon Lecture given by Lynn Arave

Park City Museum will host Lynn Arave who will give a lecture titled Showcasing the Legacy of Lagoon on Thursday, May 16th from 5-6 p.m. at the Park City Museum Education and Collections Center located at 2079 Sidewinder Drive.

Only 7 amusement parks in the United States have older histories than Lagoon – and they are all east of the Mississippi. However, “Lagoon” wasn’t its original name and the park has moved locations once. From big band to opera to horse and auto racing to bowling and wrestling to high diving, Lagoon has hosted a variety of events over the decades — besides its many thrill rides. This lecture will highlight what you probably don’t know about Lagoon’s extensive history.

Lynn Arave graduated from Weber State University. He worked as a reporter/editor for the Deseret News for 32 years. He has written 5 books and has a popular blog, “The Mystery of Utah History,” often utilized often by fourth and seventh grade Utah history classes. He has conducted extensive research on Lagoon’s early history.

This lecture coincides with Park City Museum’s traveling exhibition called Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland which will be on display from April 6, 2019 to May 25, 2019.

For more than 150 years, Coney Island, a strip of sand at the mouth of New York Harbor, has occupied a singular place in the American imagination. From a beginning as a watering hole for the wealthy, through its transformation into an amusement and entertainment mecca for the masses, to its struggle for renewal in recent decades, an extraordinary array of artists have viewed Coney Island as a microcosm of the American experience. The exhibition brings to life the excitement of Coney Island, showing visitors how its magnetic world of attractions has become a touchstone for American mass culture and popular recreation. Adapted from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art’s flagship exhibition Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008, this new traveling exhibition from NEH on the Road will explore America’s playground as a place and as an idea, examining its persistent presence in the American imagination.