• Another column profiled Hiawatha Park, the amusement park which stood where the Knox County Fairgrounds now hold sway.

  • Plimpton B. Chase was the entrepreneur who launched Hiawatha Park. But soon his interest became focused on running theaters in Washington, D.C.

  • The cover of the elaborate promotional brochure Plimpton B. Chase created to draw guests to Lake Hiawatha Park.

  • This vintage postcard image shows that the park’s name was spelled out in blooming flowerbeds planted on the outer bank of the reservoir.

  • Lake Hiawatha, today part of the Knox County Fairgrounds, stands closer to the vaguely described location of the spring. It housed an amusement park in the late 1800s, but searches turned up no information about it being used earlier as a health spa.

  • This was one of two restaurants on the grounds. More of an informal luncheon option, the dairy kitchen was the smaller of the two. The larger dining hall offered more elaborate meals.

  • The 1,500-seat theater hosted two shows every day for park visitors.

  • Large church groups would regularly hold their annual assemblies at the park.

  • Both horse racing and auto racing took place on the park’s dirt track.

  • The boat house at Hiawatha Park

  • Thirty cottages ran along the southern edge of the park. One could rent an entire cottage for $20 a month.

  • Today, all of the Lake Hiawatha Park structures are gone, replaced by the exhibition halls and grandstand of the Knox County Fairgrounds.

  • This was one of the electric cable cars that ran to Hiawatha Park.