“In the history of Northern Kentucky, few places have had the sparkle and bang of the Ludlow Lagoon Amusement Park. The park was an eye-popper for young and old.” - Ken Reis

 

Lake and Boat House	Lake and Boat House, 1913. That's the theatre on the right.	Theatre Entrance and Boat Landing

 

Lake Front	Theatre and Boat House, 1909	The Bathing Beach

 

The Boat House at the Lagoon	Lagoon Park from the Lake, 1908	Roller Coaster, Lake and Main Buildings at Beautiful Lagoon, 1908. An annotated version of this pic is here.

 

Lake View	Boat Rentals	The Boathouse and the Amphitheater
Thanks to Gary Rolfsen for this one.

 

View from the Bromley Bridge

 

Lake Views of the Lagoon, with Islands

Boating on the Lake at the Lagoon, From Facebook posts by Gary Hellebush

Boating on the Lake at the Lagoon, From Facebook posts by Gary Hellebush

	From a Facebook post by Gary Hellebush
These pleasure boats at the Lagoon were at one time electric powered, and were purchased from the Chicago World's Fair, a.k.a the Columbian Exposition, They charged the 66 batteries in each boat from the trolley lines.

 

Boating, 1903

 

A Viking Boat at the Lagoon	A little background on these battleships, and those above, is here.		Naval Battles From a Facebook post by Gary Hellebush

Billboard, June 19, 1920

Their eventual destination? Don't know.

Racing in the Motordrome
From a Facebook post by Mike Martin

 

The Motordrome
From a Facebook post by Gary Hellebush

Motorcycles Racing on the Motordrome: a wooden track at the Lagoon, banked at 60 degrees, and used for motorcycle racing. It opened on July 21, 1913, and could seat 8,000. It had lights for night racing. On July 30, 1913, a bike left the track and crashed into the crowd. The bike took out a light pole, and the gas and sparks created fire, and panic. At least ten people died - likely more, the numbers are sketchy - and many more were injured.

The Enquirer's initial August 1 story of the tragedy, followed by this one on August 2.

The afternoon paper, The Kentucky Post was all over the story on the 31st.

And after the tragedy, in rushed the . . . Red Cross? No, lawyers.