We Are So Confused . . .

We know for sure that there was a track in Wilder. The Queen City track was there from 1895 to 1905 of so, and was roughly where the steel mill is today. It was an attempt to compete with the track at Latonia, but failed. There's a picture of it on our Wilder page.

The Newport track . . .well, we've searched for information about it, but it's ambiguous whether news accounts are talking about races at this track in Newport, or whether they're referring to the track in Wilder; referring to it as the Newport track instead of the Queen City.

Or maybe they're talking about the track that might have been in Silver Grove: Glen Park.

Complicating the Glen Park name is that there were two such areas. One is a section of the Clifton area of Newport. This article about a Clifton Heights building boom proves as much. We also know the name of the man who established Glen Park, because they listed him in a Master Commissioner's sale of some of his lots at the Courthouse door:

Kentucky Post, November 23, 1895

But confusing even that are some of the street names in the Clifton area:

 

Kentucky Post, July 26, 1895

Kentucky Post, August 13, 1903

Kentucky Post, September 5, 1906

 

(Likely at the time Newport annexed Clifton Heights, Brilliant became 17th, Park became Parkview, and Garnet has long since disappeared.)

The other Glen Park was, indeed, just down river from Silver Grove. We're sure, because in 1908 the Newport Driving Park Association bought land next to Glen Park, described as on the C&O Railroad, about 7 miles from Newport. Or maybe 14 miles, as this announcement of the track's planned construction notes. It's was also located as up river from Fort Thomas. Whichever is accurate, in April of 1906, it was declared “a fizzle.” What we know for sure about Glen Park is that it was a site for many an outing from the city. Such sites were common at the turn of the 19th century, as people got out of the city to cleaner air. These two items are merely samples of the dozen or so you can find:

Kentucky Post, May 5, 1903, 1906

 

Kentucky Post, June 8, 1903

Then there's this, which indicates that there was a guy who contemplated building a track at the fill (literally where the water backed up, or further up toward the railroad where the map shows a track?), but gave up the spot to build at Glen Park.

Kentucky Post, March 8, 1906

Note that Glen Park was also known as Hieber's.

We also note that the Silver Grove/Glen Park/Hieber's map is from a map of the 1937 flood. Was there a later track? A private track? A Cincinnati map maker ignoring his out-of-date cartography?

We remain confused as to how many tracks, and when, were in Campbell County. And we haven't even looked into the fairgrounds in Alexandria, or Race Track Road.