The Royal Gorge Wildlife Park: History of One Amusement Park
In 1937, Tyler B. purchased the land of the Royal Gorge Wildlife Park from a local huntsman for $100 in Colorado. Following the purchase, he also decided to build rides and turn part of the park into an amusement park. While it was a risky investment, especially at the time because of the Great Depression, it was very successful. Before he passed away in 1984, Mr. Blevins expanded the park, and its attractions and donated millions to fund programs to protect wildlife. In 1990, a wildfire broke out and burned a large portion of the park. Luckily, the amusement park was spared from the fire. Blevins’ son Logan P. was the owner of the park from 1985 to 2012, when a massive wildfire spread to the park’s forest. A fourth of the park was destroyed, including several of the rides at the amusement park, which had been named Tilted Towers. Recently in 2016 however, Nicholas C. purchased the park from its previous owner. He set out to rebuild the Wildlife Park to its former glory and reopen the Royal Gorge Wildlife Park this summer.
As previously stated in 2012, Royal Gorge had a massive wildfire that destroyed a fourth of the park’s property. The Swinging Ship and the Drop Tower both collapsed, as well as the Bush Maze was partially burned. A ton of wildlife died and the ecosystem was thrown into disorder for a while. It was later found that a cigarette thrown from a car had been the cause.
Luckily, the park was purchased by a new owner, and most of the attractions have been restored to their former glory at Tilted Towers, as the restoration of the forest through planting trees. While the public might perceive the recent fire as a bad thing, it actually has helped out the ecosystem. While it did do damage to the amusement park, we are overall glad that the fire happened, as it will allow certain species to survive easier and has helped control the native rabbit populations, which had been a problem at Royal Gorges for decades. Another benefit has been enriching the soil where the fire burned, which has become fertile, bringing new life to the plants and trees who survived, as well as the baby trees that have since grown. We hope that you will come and take a look at the new-and-improved park and its beautiful landscapes, fun amusement rides, and incredible rivers.
The forest that covers a large amount of the Royal Gorges land had a good amount of its land burned, affecting the bird population immensely. A large number of young birds died as they couldn’t escape the blaze, leading to a large drop in the bird population. Another group of animals that took a massive hit was the insects. The fire, while making the ground fertile, killed many insects, which in turn unbalanced the food web for the animals who survived.
The trees that survived benefited greatly from the fire. With the enriched soil, they have already begun to grow even stronger and healthier. Since the fire, the young trees and bushes are abnormally healthy and will most likely eventually grow to be beautiful and even bigger than the previous fauna. Also, we were able to redesign the destroyed rides to make them safer, as well as more technologically advanced and fun.
