Entry No. 38 — the Denver file — filed under: history
Manhattan Beach Historical Marker
Thousands of people loop Sloan's Lake every week and walk straight past a 1953 bronze plaque bolted to the north-shore restroom building. It marks Manhattan Beach, a Gay-Nineties amusement park that ran 1891-1914 with a theater, a steamship, an ostrich-drawn coach, even a circus elephant -- and left essentially zero physical trace. The theater burned in 1908 and the rest faded by 1914, so the plaque is basically the only evidence it was ever real. If you don't know it's there, it just blends into the wall.
The move: Find the plaque on the lake's north-shore bathroom building, read the lost-park history off it, then walk the shore picturing where the steamship and elephant were while you loop the lake.
📍 Before you go The plaque sits on the southwest corner of the building, facing the trail and water, so approach from the lakeside path rather than the parking-lot side and scan low on the wall. The biggest lots are at the park's northwest corner near Sheridan Boulevard and West Byron Place, a short walk away. This is one of Denver's busiest parks; on summer weekends the lots fill fast, so a weekday or earlier arrival is calmer. Pair it with the flat, paved roughly 2.6-mile loop around the lake, which opens up downtown-skyline views from the eastern shore.
- 📍 Sloan's Lake
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: Mounted on the Sloan's Lake north-shore bathroom/boathouse building (SW corner of the structure), Sloan's Lake Park, Denver, CO
Hours: Outdoor marker in a public park; accessible any time, best in daylight. The restroom building it's mounted on is on the lake's north shore.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: hmdb.org · cpr.org
last checked: 2026-06-07