Historic Ride Ksps Documentary Remembers Natatorium Park - Spokane’s Very Own Coney Island

If you think history is dry and boring, here’s a Spokane historical documentary that’s about as dry as The Plunge, as boring as the Jack Rabbit roller coaster.

“Remember When: Nat Park,” a documentary which airs tonight at 7 on KSPS-7, should prove to be a wistful nostalgia trip for native Spokanites who grew up with Natatorium Park. But it could also prove fascinating to newcomers, who will see for the first time why Natatorium Park was at the very center of the cultural and emotional life of Spokane for nearly 80 years.

Natatorium Park was the place where Spokanites played, picnicked, swam, danced, courted, got married and scared themselves to death on the Jack Rabbit. As one early ad proclaimed, it was truly Spokane’s Coney Island.

This one-hour documentary was produced by Spokane independent producer Tom McArthur, who gathered material from many sources. In a style which owes something to Ken Burns, he tells most of the story through interviews with historians, former employees, and old-timers, one of whom paid her first visit to the park in 1920.

McArthur sandwiches these interviews with plenty of home-movie footage and still photos.

“We put an ad out asking for film, pictures and recollections,” said McArthur. The response was overwhelming, he said.

McArthur also was able to draw upon the research of Karen DeSeve, archivist at the Cheney Cowles Museum, who wrote her master’s thesis about Nat Park. In fact, it was DeSeve who first floated the idea of a documentary. KSPS-7 liked the idea and brought in McArthur, a former KREM-2 and KXLY-4 reporter, to produce it.

McArthur had never heard of Natatorium Park, but it didn’t take him long to learn.

“When you start talking about Natatorium Park, people just light up, grab your arm and start talking for a half-hour,” McArthur said.

The documentary covers a lot of years, from 1889 when the park first opened, to 1968 when it closed forever. Here are some of the things you’ll learn:

It began as Twickenham Park in 1889 and the attractions were baseball, liquor and gambling.

In 1893, it became the home of the first heated pool in Washington, and the park was re-christened with the grand Latin name for pool: natatorium.

The park was originally intended as a destination to boost ridership on streetcars. Washington Water Power, one of Spokane’s major streetcar operators, owned the park for many years.

A newer indoor pool, The Plunge, was built in 1910, and it boasted 300 individual dressing rooms.

A black family was refused service at a Natatorium Park restaurant in 1900, prompting them to file Spokane’s first racial discrimination suit. The family lost.

The Nat Park Carrousel, known as the Wedding Carrousel because so many weddings took place there, later became the only attraction to survive the demise of the park. It is now the Riverfront Park Carrousel.

“Anti-spooning” rules were enforced. Anyone caught kissing would be handcuffed and taken to the park office.

On holidays, the park’s attendance went as high as 50,000.

The park boasted the largest dance hall on the West Coast. Legendary Big Band heroes Benny Goodman, Harry James and Glenn Miller played there.

The baseball field was turned into a midget speedway in 1939.

The park died a slow and painful death through the 1960s, a victim of aging attractions and rising costs.

If it had survived, it would be the oldest continuously operating amusement park on the West Coast. Instead, it is now the site of the Sans Souci West Mobile Home Park, at the western terminus of Boone Avenue.

While a great deal of the program is guaranteed to evoke memories of a happy age, McArthur said he felt it was vital to bring up some not-so-rosy memories. Thus, the segment on racial discrimination.

“It’s part of the history of the park, and I felt it belonged,” said McArthur. “I’ve received some comments from people who say Nat Park was a wonderful place, how dare you taint it? But I came to it from a journalistic background, telling the whole story, warts and all.”

In addition to tonight’s 7 p.m. airing, the show will be repeated on Aug. 31 and Sept. 10 at 8 p.m. on KSPS-7.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos; Map of Natatorium Park area