Old Postcards And Timeless Fun From Iowa
Arnolds park Iowa
Ebay can be a fun spontaneous history lesson sometimes. It can inspire things that maybe we don’t look for normally. And that is what happened yesterday. Shhhhhhh, I was on a zoom call and searching ebay at the same time. Anywho, this old postcard of Arnolds Park in Iowa just screamed fun, and of course we have done stories on the show in Iowa, but to be honest, those stories can be about the boats, not as much the setting. And I never connected the two. I did, but didn’t. make sense?
Some googling and so many images came up
In Color
In 1938
So I blew up the
Is that a 50 cents on the transom?
Someone is out ripping up the water.
The speed boat ride is a better deal. Just sayn. BTW, 50 cents in todays dollars is around 10 bucks. Which is still a deal. Then again, if you take 4 people out for 1/2 hour thats 80 bucks an hr, times 10 trips a day, thats 800 a day, times two for the weekend. 1,600..
If you want to see some more of Arnold park in Iowa, here is a great story by Freedom Boat Service. Definitely a must see location
A fun way to learn more detail about an interesting location.
Matt did you find any photos of people actually dancing on that roof?
I really like these sort of old pics…keep em coming….
John in Va
Thought the ‘business opportunity’ of boat rides was a hoot. That $1600 for a weekend sadly does not include a few items. Insurance, fuel, dockage, marketing, maintenance, parking, tow rig costs, etc. At the end of the day you’ll likely end up with a dollar-two-ninty-eight! Modern world…….
I think I saw Nessie, the Loc Ness monster in one of the blown up shots!.. a little grainy but pretty sure… 🙂
🙏❤️
Wait, fun in Iowa? That sounds like an oxymoron with all due respect for Iowans.
Nooooo fun in Iowa, none at Arnolds Park on Lake Okoboji. The Roof Garden is still open but, just move along, nothing to see here.
nothing to see
nadda. not a thing
Yardbirds, Trashmen, Gas Co, Johnny Cash. Wow, that place must have been a blast. No wonder that Royce always has a smile on his face.
Growing up in Southern Minnesota, Arnolds Park was “the” amusement part during my youth and the roof garden was “the” place for doing what teenagers do when I was a teenager. In those days, I never noticed the boats.