The ACE Preservation Conference Brings Members to Colorado

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originally posted on 9/3/2021 4:43:29 AM

Photo: May Ubinas. View full-sized image.

The ACE Preservation Conference’s theme took on an entirely new significance in 2021: the preservation of the event and the perseverance of many of those who attended. Not only did a global pandemic force its rescheduling from 2020, but Mother Nature intervened as well. Heavy rains earlier in the summer resulted in mudslides that closed a section of I-70 — an important highway artery from Denver to Glenwood Springs — and resulted in a portion of the approximately 145 attendees enduring a lengthy detour to reach the first of the event’s three destinations.

Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

Upon arriving at the top, many attendees toured the inner workings of the new gondola.
Photo: Kevin Knapp. View full-sized image.

Despite the unwelcome test of endurance, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park was unanimously declared to be worth the effort. A park very few had visited (or even knew of) before ACE announced it as part of the Preservation Con, all were smitten by its spectacularly dramatic mountaintop location requiring an epic cable car trek to the top. After having reached a breathtaking altitude, attendees quickly discovered there was much more to Glenwood Caverns than anticipated. What looked to be a quick visit on paper unfolded as an all-day experience.

GM Nancy Heard welcomes ACEers and dignitaries.
Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

Owners Steve Beckley and wife Jeanne are flanked by the mayor of Glenwood Springs and a member of the Chamber of Commerce at the groundbreaking.
Photo: Kevin Knapp. View full-sized image.

This view shows the groundbreaking ceremony from above.
Photo: Jeffrey Seifert. View full-sized image.

The day began with a true celebration in the form of the official groundbreaking for Defiance. Led by proud members of the park’s staff as well as Glenwood Springs’ mayor, shovels in the dirt signified the pending arrival of the park’s custom Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter. Expected to be ready for the 2022 season, the twisted steel creation will undoubtedly elevate Glenwood Caverns’ stature as an amusement park destination.

Cave experiences are what got Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park started. View full-sized image.

Photos: Jeff Harper. View full-sized image.

Attendees received a behind-the-scenes tour of the alpine coaster maintenance shop.
Photo: Kevin Knapp. View full-sized image.

Speaking of elevation, the park’s unique setting has been utilized by ownership to transform common amusement industry hardware into one-of-a-kind experiences. Even the most hardcore of the hardcore shrieked in delight because a humble S&S Screamin’ Swing takes on an entirely different persona when erected on the side of a cliff, flinging riders into the air thousands of feet above the craggy ground below. Down the path from this appropriately named Giant Canyon Swing is Haunted Mine Drop, a drop tower installed in a hole blasted into the mountain and impressively illustrating Glenwood Caverns’ talent for blending resourcefulness and creativity.

Giant Canyon Swing takes (scary!) advantage of the park’s setting.
Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

The Haunted Mine Drop is a pulse-pounding thriller for the unexpected.
Photo: May Ubinas. View full-sized image.

Popular with ACE members was the Wiegand Alpine Coaster – the first of its kind in North America following the park’s protracted negotiations with the German manufacturer to agree to doing business on what they perceived as a lawsuit-happy side of the pond. Whether or not so-called mountain coasters are actual roller coasters became inconsequential, because no one will admit to being underwhelmed by the laughter-inducing experience that made even the most seasoned coaster experts contemplate the wisdom of using their sleds’ brakes on the bucking bronco finale (although it’s likely no one will admit to actually having done so). Combined with two you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it cave tours, it came somewhat as a surprise that the park’s two standard roller coasters — a small Tivoli called Wild West Express Coaster and Cliffhanger, an S&MC Windstorm relocated from Celebration City — were almost afterthoughts throughout the day.

Glenwood Caverns’ alpine coaster was America’s first.
Photo: Kevin Knapp. View full-sized image.

Cliffhanger.
Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

Wild West Express Coaster is geared toward the younger set — and ACEers.
Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

While a stranger to most coaster enthusiasts, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park hosted with generosity and precision on par with parks that have been friends of ACE for decades. Following dinner, Cliffhanger’s mechanic, Natalie Bagnard, hosted a Q&A session about the challenges of maintaining and operating a roller coaster in a high-altitude setting, where temperatures frequently drop into the 50s. Once she’d satisfied ACE members’ curiosities, park owner Steve Beckley took the microphone to speak about his park’s evolution and future plans. Without revealing his cards beyond Defiance, he suggested there is more than enough room on top of the mountain for additional coasters. Having been handed a plaque commemorating the occasion, one couldn’t help but feel it wouldn’t be the last ACE hands to Mr. Beckley. As the saying goes, watch this space.

Owner Steve Beckley and ACE President Robert Ulrich.
Photo: Kevin Knapp. View full-sized image.

The sunset in the mountains closed the day out in true beauty.
Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

In Denver (with I-70 thankfully reopened) ACE celebrated Lakeside Amusement Park, a longtime favorite of the organization. The last remaining example of a turn-of-the-century White City featuring the iconic Tower of Jewels, it is adored for its assortment of classic rides bathed in neon signage that famously shimmer in adjacent Lake Rhoda after sunset. More than ever, it is an amusement park worthy of affection and accolades. After not operating at all during the 2020 season, Lakeside opened a mere few weeks prior to the Preservation Con. While some rides like the Whip and Ferris Wheel were partially disassembled for rebuilds and the recently installed Zyklon roller coaster remained dormant, attendees joined a healthy local crowd in enjoyment of time-tested gems such as the Skoota Boats, Satellite, Wild Chipmunk and Cyclone — an ACE Roller Coaster Landmark.

Wild Chipmunk.
Photos: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

Cyclone. View full-sized image.

As they are known to do, Lakeside Owner Rhoda Krasner and her daughter, Brenda Fishman, rolled out the red carpet for ACE members in the form of an Italian-style buffet dinner and after-hours ice cream social, merchandise sales area and into-the-next-day ERT on a handful of the park’s celebrated classics. In addition to being presented a plaque for their cherished hospitality, David Forsyth, a historian and author of Denver’s Lakeside Amusement Park: From the White City Beautiful to a Century of Fun, treated ACE members to an abbreviated but nonetheless thorough oral history of the property and offered a signed copy of his work as part of the event’s second silent auction. Lakeside also sold late-night rides on their forbidden fruit (for adults) Miler Manufacturing Kiddie Coaster, and five attendees took a bite to raise money for the National Roller Coaster Museum and Archives in Plainview, Texas.

Author David Forsyth spoke on the history of the park.
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Photos: David Stremme. View full-sized image.

Photo: David Stremme. View full-sized image.

Steve Berto, Brenda Fishman, Rhoda Krasner and Robert Ulrich.
Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

For well-traveled ACE members, the visit to Lakeside was akin to hugging a beloved friend; for newcomers, the visit was unquestionably a hands-on history lesson inside a living, breathing museum. Is it more difficult to believe many other parks like this once existed or accept that only one was bestowed with enough good fortune to survive through more than a century of roller coaster-like ups and downs? While an ACE event isn’t required for a visit to Denver and Lakeside, it’s a lot more fun when more than 100 coaster enthusiasts show up to collectively celebrate one of the reasons ACE was formed more than four decades ago.

Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

Photo: May Ubinas. View full-sized image.

The evening at Lakeside provided a late-night “gift store” and ice cream social.
Photo: David Stremme. View full-sized image.

Following ERT that rendered many attendees exhausted, the Preservation Con wrapped up at Elitch Gardens on Sunday morning. Lakeside’s one-time neighbor, Elitch Gardens famously (or infamously, depending on one’s perspective) relocated from its suburban confines to an unused plot of land in the Platt River valley for the 1995 season. This resulted in the park’s two wood roller coasters — the Herb Schmeck-designed Wildcat and the top-rated John Allen Mr. Twister — being left behind and replaced with a modern interpretation of the latter, Twister II. As Denver has thrived as a metropolitan area, the land on which Elitch Gardens sits will soon become part of a redevelopment project called The River Mile. As is poetically appropriate of an entity in Denver, Elitch Gardens’ future is currently up in the air.

Twister II was on the morning ERT.
Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.

Boomerang.
Photo: Jeff Harper. View full-sized image.

Eventual uncertainty aside, Elitch Gardens’ Special Events Account Executive Holly Vigil made certain ACE members were treated to a fantastic day at a park that has successfully grown into its home over the last quarter century. For nearly two hours before its opening to the general public, attendees were treated to ERT on a handful of rides including Boomerang and the aforementioned Twister II, as well as a behind-the-scenes tour of the whimsical Meow Wolf’s Kaleidoscape dark ride. A delicious meal featuring brisket provided a necessary break from the afternoon’s glorious sunshine, at which point the park’s General Manager David Dorman showed off his impressive auctioneer chops by selling an original hand-painted Twister II sign and raising $450 for the ACE Preservation Fund. Combined with silent auctions at all three host posts, more than $1,700 was raised throughout the weekend.

Photo: Jeff Harper. View full-sized image.

Photo: Kevin Knapp. View full-sized image.

A walkthrough tour of Kaleidoscape was a perk for attendees.
Photo: Kevin Knapp. View full-sized image.

One can hope a pandemic and highway closures don’t affect next year’s Preservation Conference (wherever it will be held), but regardless of what might happen, ACE members can be counted on to attend and celebrate amusement park history.

— Rob Ascough