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Historic place

Calder's Park / Wandamere

2780 S 700 E, South Salt Lake, UT

A spring-fed amusement park with a boating lake and 100,000 visitors a season became a nine-hole golf course.

📅 until 1921🏛️ ParkDemolished
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The story

A Daughters of Utah Pioneers marker says George and Mary B. Calder built one of the first amusement parks here in the early 1860s. They cleared the land with oxen, planted grass and trees, and turned a natural spring into a boating lake crossed by a bridge. Over time it gained a dance pavilion, racetrack, ball park, merry-go-round, bowling lanes, a roller rink and a waterslide.

The Rapid Transit Street Car Company ran the park from 1891 to 1902 and extended streetcar service along 700 East. The LDS Granite Stake later took over and renamed it Wandamere Park, and by 1909 it was improved and renamed. At its peak it drew over 100,000 visitors a season. By 1921 interest had faded, and Charles W. Nibley bought it and gave the land to Salt Lake City on condition it stay open park space. The city made it a nine-hole golf course.

What's There Now

Nibley Park Golf Course, still run by Salt Lake City.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The name Wanda was said to mean beautiful place, and mere little lake, per one local account.
Horse racing at the track was later replaced by motorcycle racing.
The marker was dedicated in 1954 as DUP Marker No. 203.

Nearby history

Snelgrove's Ice Cream parlor and plant

850 E 2100 S · 1.7 km away
The Sugar House flagship of Snelgrove's had art deco decor, a factory out back and a 1962 double-cone sign, closing in 2

Woodland Drive-In

4005 S 700 E · 2.9 km away
It opened July 1, 1949 with Abbott and Costello and billed itself as having the brightest curved screen in Utah.

Highland Drive-In

3670 S Highland Dr · 3.0 km away
A concrete screen tower with HIGHLAND on the back got a $400,000 twin-screen remodel in 1961.

Smith's Ballpark

1365 S West Temple · 3.7 km away
Opened in 1994 on the Derks Field site as one of the early double-decked AAA stadiums.

Oak Hills Drive-In

2775 E 1000 S · 4.6 km away
A drive-in just southeast of Hogle Zoo let neighbors pay $50 for a speaker hookup and watch from home.

Trolley Square (Utah Light and Railway car barns)

602 E 500 S · 5.2 km away
E.H. Harriman spent $3.5 million on streetcar barns here; the last trolley left in 1945 and a mall opened in 1972.

Know something about Calder's Park / Wandamere? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?

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Sourceshttps://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMC8V4_Calders_Park_203