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[Junior]

It's fun to track the growth of SDC by looking at Pathfinder maps. Notice how shops move from location to location, some disappear, some are added. New sections were added to the park in the 70's, at first the area going down Hill Street where the Tintype Shop/Printing Shop, Saloon, and Fire in the Hole were added in '73, then the addition of the "Deepwoods" section in 1977. Check out four Pathfinder maps from 70, 76, 77, and 79 and see how SDC grew back then. I pulled the old maps from my files. Some of these you may have seen before, others probably not. Back in those days, I had a tendancy to write on the maps. If you notice one has what looks like a trail sketched on it around the old stage depot, through the float trip, down to FITH...that was my sketch of the Butterfield Stagecoach Ride route at the time. That old route is where Wildfire and Powderkeg now sit, but back then, it was all out in the woods. Click on the illustrations to increase the map size and look at map details better. Have fun!   http://www.flickr.com/photos/juniordugan  

[sanddunerider]

Junior, thanks as always for your pics....  really is amazing what transpired those 10 years...... AND allowing for that, if you think about the next 10 or even 20 years!!!  Lots of changes and added attractions. Not even counting the last 10... '

Pretty amazing growth/expansion from year to year...

thanks again.

[tiffanylynnt]

I love looking at the old pics from the City!!!

[How-doFolks]

its funny how "boxy" all of them look compared to todays maps.
ahh, technology..

[Junior]

Yes, the city has grown over the years, things have changed! It always amazes me that after 50 years, the PTB can stll give us an improved product each year, while retaining so much of the past that we all have grown up with and come to love. Outlaw Run is a good example...hurry, March 15th!    Thanks for the kind comments. I'll pull some more photos and other items from my files in the weeks to come.

[Kentucky Optimist]

I noticed on the maps from '76 and '77 there is a drawing of a river under the toll bridge between what is now the candy factory and the glass factory.  I know that currently there isn't any sort of water feature.  Was there some sort of creek or man made stream in the past?

[Swoosh]

It's still there.  It runs through Half Dollar Holler.  It's more of a creek than anything, but with the drought it hasn't been very full lately.

Here you can see it in some of these photos of HDH
http://midwestinfoguide.com/silver/2011/mar19/index2.html

[Junior]

That water feature was a little concrete basin under the bridge. It was like a small pool or pond. At various times in years past they didn't have water in it, and it would fill with leaves and other natural debris. I imagine there could be a natural spring in the holler somewhere, that perhaps the concrete pool or pond would catch runoff and it would fill on occasion. On really old maps from the 60s, there is a mention of a trail to the bass pond. I don't know if it refered to a bigger pond under the bridge, or if it would have meant a trail leading to what would have been then a completely isolated Lake Silver.

[DollarCityBoy]

Pardon my ignorance, and maybe it has been discussed before; but is Lake Silver
man-made or natural?

[Kentucky Optimist]

I was aware of the concrete basin, that's where the "used" water from the water wheel at the mill ends up.  I had no idea any other water wound up there as well.  It makes sense, those two spots are really close to each other, SDC just does a really good job of making it seem like they are far apart with all of the well placed trees.  Junior- a trail to the bass pond, I love the history that is added on this forum, couldn't get that anywhere else!

[Junior]

I've got to be blunt, I really don't know of Lake Silver is a natural pond or man made. Let's say if it is natural, it has been "improved" upon many times over the years. Going back to my first visit in 1970, Lake Silver was there. It was completely isolated in the woods back then. The train followed the same track it does today around the lake. Prior to the opening of the "Deepwoods" in 1977, there was a feature on the lake of a man fishing in a boat. The train conductor had some patter about that was a private lake, and why was that guy using the condutor's new boat. Then the conductor fired a round at the man in the boat, and the figure of the man swung around and shook his fist at the conductor. It got a pretty good laugh. When the diving bell was added as part of the new Deepwoods area, the Eli Tolt submersible was on one side of the lake, and the fake diving bell submersible was adjacent to the diving bell building. The man in the boat was removed so as to not conflict with the diving bell story line. In 1984, when the Greedy Brothers Boat Excursion was added to the Lake Silver area (for just that one summer) the big wooden structure used as a target for the water cannons at the kids playground was built. The structure was part of the Greedy Brothers attraction first. People would load into boats at Greedy Brothers and would follow a course in the lake in a search for treasure. Water geysers and fountains would splash people in the boats as it worked through the course. It was about this time that the kids Shantytown playground was added, too. As attractions came and went, the Lake Silver area was developed more and more. So things were added and taken out of the lake over the years. At least part of the lake has a concrete lining, and you will see this if you visit in winter when they draw down the lake level for the winter months. I believe that is done so they can do maintainance on structures around the lake. ZEPHON says the center of the lake is the deepest, at about 15 to 20 feet. I can tell you the water level around the Lost River structure (formerly diving bell building) is only about waste deep on a grown man. I know this because on my last day working at the diving bell in 1983 my fellow Juniors pulled a prank on me and threw me in the lake! I landed ten to fifteen feet away from the wharf at the diving bell, summersaulting as I was tossed, and landed on my feet. Memories! Anyhow, that is a short history of Lake Silver as I  know it. Maybe ZEPHON or another current citizen is in the know about if the lake is real or man made. I know at one time somebody jokingly told me that the lake was the original sewage pond for the park, but I think looking back all these years later on the source, they were pulling my leg.