John Shearer: Common Themes Run Through Lake Winnepesaukah’s 90 Years Of History

  • Monday, August 10, 2015
  • John Shearer

The looks on the faces of visitors to Lake Winnepesaukah on a typical summer day tell of people enjoying the present moment, but a glance at the rides is like a journey through the amusement park’s past 90 years.

From its boat chute dating back nearly to the park’s beginning, to the Cannon Ball roller coaster built in the 1960s, to the adjacent Soak Ya Water Park opened two years ago, the unique park has continuously evolved.

But as far as focus, the operators of the attraction just across the Georgia line said in an interview in connection with the anniversary that they have tried to stay the same since the beginning by being family focused.

This has included everything from not charging for the use of pavilions to allowing families to bring their own picnic food.

“We are a family park and we take pride in that,” said park treasurer Tennyson Dickinson.

Added her sister, Talley Green, who serves as park secretary, “The park has evolved and gotten bigger, but what we stand for as far as family values, that has run through the test of time.”

Another consistent theme, although not as intentional, is that women have held leadership positions in the park’s operation throughout much of its history – and well before women gained near equal footing in the American workforce.  This has been due to deaths as well as simply all the female births.

The park has also encompassed other aspects of American history. According to some historical information provided by the park, the land was once the site of more serious dealings than just family amusement. Native Americans had built an earthen dam around several springs to form the first lake there, and Confederate troops camped there at the time of the Civil War Battle of Missionary Ridge in 1863.

It later became a fishing club before Carl Dixon, a well-known local racecar driver and sportsman, purchased the land with his wife, Minette Hiener Dixon, in 1924. They changed the name of the lake – which was once called McAfee Lake and then Green’s Spring Lake – to Lake Winnepesaukah, which came from a Native American word meaning “bountiful waters” or “beautiful lake of the highlands.”

He envisioned it as a place for family swimming and picnicking. The idea must have been a good one, as opening weekend on May 30 and June 1, 1925, drew 1,000 and 5,000 visitors, respectively.

Soon, the urge to offer additional attractions grew, so one of the largest concrete swimming pools in the South opened in 1926, and it would host big swimming meets. It was used for swimming until 1964 and is still there, although a historic carousel that had once been in Lakewood Park in Atlanta has been operating on top of the pool site since 1968.  

In 1927 came the arrival of the park’s first ride, the boat chute, which was designed by Mr. Dixon and, according to park officials, has been copied by other amusement parks.

Other well-known attractions that followed over the years included what is currently the oldest miniature golf course in the country in 1930, a large skating rink called the Casino in 1931, the original Ferris Wheel in 1940, the Tilt-A-Whirl in 1942, the Little Royal Palm Train in 1950, the Mad Mouse roller coaster in 1960 (later replaced at the site by the very comparable Wild Lightnin’ in 2001), the Antique Car ride in 1966, the Cannon Ball roller coaster built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. in 1967, and a new Ferris Wheel in 2005.

The park has also hosted a variety of entertainment, from novelty acts in the early days, to musicians in later years. One musician was country singer Blake Shelton, who was booked just as he was releasing one of his early hits, “Ol’ Red,” in the early 2000s.

“He went from up and coming to stardom right before he was to appear and we were happy to be on the bandwagon, too,” remembered Ms. Green.

Unfortunately for founder Carl Dixon, he was not there for much of the park’s growth. He had surgery on his nose, and it became infected in the days before penicillin was commonly used for such treatments, and he died on April 28, 1933.

That left the operation of the burgeoning park to his wife, Minette. According to her granddaughter, Adrienne Rhodes, the mother of Ms. Tennyson and Ms. Green, her grandmother was quite capable.   

“Grandmother kept track of everything,” she remembered. “He was the adventurer and visionary, and she was the bookkeeper.”

A sister of well-known Chattanooga area photographer Paul Hiener, Mrs. Dixon was a lifelong member of Centenary Methodist Church and was among those who helped start the Wesley Community Center Clinic off Main Street.

As a child growing up when her grandmother ran it, Ms. Rhodes remembers Lake Winnepesaukah as a special place full of caring employees. “Mother never needed a babysitter for me,” she recalled. “I had a park full of people. I still remember all the wonderful employees and where they lived.”

After Ms. Dixon’s death in 1958, the operation of the park fell into the hands of her daughter, Evelyn Dixon White, who had formerly been involved in the food services and catering division. She developed the concept of catering picnics and came up with recipes that were reportedly well received.

Ms. White, who had two daughters, Charlyn “Tootsie” Harless, and Ms. Rhodes, headed the park for a number of years and eventually leased it to Fun Town Inc. for 20 years beginning in 1977.

While that did allow Ms. Rhodes to raise her children, the family was ready to get back to work and offer a more hands-on touch when they took back over operation in 1998, four years before Mrs. White died at the age of 90.

“As soon as the lease was over, I rolled up my sleeves and went back to work,” said Ms. Rhodes, who now serves as president. “We had more work to do than what was anticipated.”

Ms. Rhodes, who often lives during the summer peak season in a house on the grounds by the boat chute where her mother had also lived, actually begins her days by doing what many of the visitors do – riding the small train that circles the park. “You see things you don’t see any other way,” she said.

This has literally allowed her to come full circle at the place that has always been a part of her life.

As Ms. Rhodes and her two daughters kindly reminisced in the park’s offices one hot summer day recently, it was obvious the park has been an important part of their lives. They recalled their own memories, such as Ms. Dickinson’s grandmother letting her paint a horse on the merry-go-round – and her mother’s horrific reaction after learning about it.

They also remember all the staff and how many people have worked there over the years. “For so many people, it has been their first job. Lake Winnepesaukah has trained somewhat of a workforce in the region,” said Ms. Green.

Most of all, they are touched by the positive experiences of so many visitors to this place that has been affectionately called Lake Winnie over the years, a term that has even become part of its marketing strategy after the family convinced Ms. White.

The family is full of stories of couples who met there and have come back to celebrate their anniversaries. There is also the memory of the film crew having so much fun visiting there for a PBS documentary about old amusement parks that their boss could not get them to quit riding the Cannon Ball.

And because the park is smaller than other amusement parks in bigger cities and has shorter lines for rides and perhaps more nostalgic and sentimental charm, they have been able to compete to some degree with the major parks.

Ms. Rhodes’ favorite Lake Winnepesaukah story she likes to share is along that line. She said some Chattanooga grandparents stopped her about four years ago to tell her they had always taken their children and then grandchildren to Lake Winnepesaukah, but once decided to take them all to Disney World in Florida.

“As they walked around Disney, the 7-year-old grandson threw a penny in a wishing well,” Ms. Rhodes said. “At lunch they asked the boy what he had wished for. His answer was, ‘I wished I was at Lake Winnepesaukah.’ The grandparents and parents said they learned a valuable lesson.”

Click here to listen to Adrienne Rhodes talk briefly about the history of Lake Winnepesaukah.

Jcshearer2@comcast.net

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