Sloans Lake

Located at Sheridan Blvd. & W. 17th Ave., this park features a basketball court, bicycle/pedestrian pathway, boating, football field, softball field, soccer field, tennis court, lighted tennis court, shelter, picnic area, flower gardens, two playgrounds, water skiing, and fishing.

Thomas F. Sloan filed homestead papers on what is now the southwest corner of Sloan's Lake Park and received a patent signed from President Andrew Johnson on December 13, 1866. He later purchased additional acreage. While using his land as a farm, he became a prize winning exhibitor of cattle and produce and built an ice house next to the lake to help supply Denver’s summer cooling needs. In 1872, Sloan marketed his home as "the best farm in Colorado of 100 acres--- fronting on the road from Denver to Georgetown and running back to Sloan's Lake." Unsuccessful in selling his homestead, he platted it for development as "Lakeville". Shortly thereafter he died leaving legal estate claims that would not be totally resolved for over sixty years.

There are as yet undocumented legends on the formation of the lake. They involve Thomas Sloan either planting potatoes or digging of a well over an aquifier or high water table. Shortly thereafter, there was a lake where none was before.
In 1874, Sloan's Lake was connected to Cheltenham Heights by a canal. Cheltenham Heights was near today’s Federal Boulevard and Cheltenham Elementary School. It was about half-way between downtown Denver and Sloan's Lake. For thirty-five cents, one could take a horse drawn trolley from Denver to the boat dock at Cheltenham Heights, board the only steamship in Colorado, and cruise around Sloan's Lake. It was not profitable and shortly went out of business. The canal became a dump site and was filled in over the years.

By the 1890’s Manhattan Beach had appeared on the Sloan's Lake banks. It was one of several private amusement parks in the Denver area. Private amusement parks were in vogue both locally and nationally during this era, and were one of the precursors to the public park system. The nearby competition proved to be powerful. "White City", which was to become today’s "Lakeside Amusement Park" and the historic "Elitch Gardens", since moved to its Central Platte Valley location, were both within two miles of Manhattan Beach.

In the 1870’s, Denver’s Mayor Richard Sopris envisioned two great parks connected with a grand parkway. Known as "The Hourglass Plan", the parks were to be today’s City and Sloan's Lake Parks, and the parkway, Colfax Avenue. While unsuccessful in obtaining Sloan's Lake and the Colfax Parkway, the efforts did obtain Denver’s first major park. City Park became the formal start of Denver’s park system.

At the start of the 20th Century, the national City and Park Planning movements made their appearance in Denver under the leadership of Mayor Robert W. Speer. In 1906, the Highland Park bond issue purchased parks in the northwest of the city, including Sloan's Lake. These parks were to be connected by a series of parkways, allowing for day trips through the parks for the "new fangled" automobile.

During the 1930s, control of the adjoining Cooper Lake fell into Denver hands after the discovery of a lost Thomas Sloan heir helped end his long standing estate problems. A federal program, (The Works Project Administration) constructed channels in effect joining the two lakes and built a jetty providing a safe boat area.
A bathhouse was built in the park’s early history and swimming was popular since the Manhattan Beach days.

As in all Denver lakes the 1950s polio epidemics closed the beaches, first temporarily and finally permanently. By the 1960s, population pressure and the advent of recreation centers and municipal swimming pools continued their closure.