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The front left is the service station, front center is the confectionery, center left is the pool, center back is the dance pavilion, in the background from left, cabin, main cottage and secondary cottage. The Main Cottage is still standing to this day.. Courtesy photo
Pettijohn Springs Amusement Park finished its first year in operation, in the fall of 1925. The opening season wasnothingshortofarousing success. Despite the owners’ inability to complete all their desired amusements.
At its opening, the only major attraction was the large swimming pool. Also completed were the filling station, general store, and confectionery, as well as the picnic grounds. What was not completed in the first year was the dance pavilion. Duringthatfirstsummer,the dances that occurred at Pettijohn were “street dances.”
While the historical accounts are not clear, it appears that the concrete highway was closed for the twice-a-week dances, and the highway pavement was utilized as the dance floor. As odd as this seems today, in 1925, there were not a lot of cars on the roads in Marshall County, and the dances were usually late in the evening at times when folks were not usually traveling on the highway other than to get to Pettijohn Springs. Plus, as slow as cars were back in those days if a car did want through, it was easy to have the dancers step aside for a few moments for the car to pass, and then dancing could continue.
In the fall of 1925, after swimming season ended, the Stevens drained the pool and installed a wooden floor at the bottom of the pool to use as a dance floor, with a canvas cover as a roof. The park operated the dance floor in the pool throughout the fall months before closing for the winter.
In the spring of 1926, the Stevensfamily began preparing for the 1926 season. During the late winter and early spring of 1926, the Stevens fully renovated the pool. It was cleaned and repaired. Spring diving boards were installed. A springboard diving tower was also added for highdiving.Andconstruction on the dance pavilion began. In an article in the Marshall County Enterprise of April 15, 1926, the following was stated about the pool renovations.
“The large swimming pool of reinforced concrete construction has been thoroughly renovated and will be supplied with fresh water every day. All drainpipes are so located that the pool will be emptied in short order while the feed pipes will pour fresh water in just as soon as the floor of the pool is scoured. This pool has been surrounded to make its use as a sporting event as well as a healthful exercise. Springboards for diving, high towers from which high divers may plunge into the limpid and bubbling depths of the sparking waters are all in place, each one, so to speak, extending to the visitor the glad hand of welcome. Each one, so to speak, shouting to our boys and girls, “Come on in, the water’s fine.”
As to the dance pavilion, the article had this report… “Besides the pool and for the use of those who wish to trip the light fantastic, a dancing pavilion is being built. This pavilion will be floored with matched lumber of high quality, planed down until no unevenness can be found and polished until it will afford a real delight to every couple who will light glide across its surface in the rhythm of the dreamy Waltz, their feet keeping time to the golden notes as they float from the instruments of a high-class orchestra.”
Also planned, but not yet begun, was the addition of a skating rink. The paper reported on the skating rink as follows.
“And now after you have taken your plunge and after youhavedanceduntilyouare tired, but still feel that your energies are too effervescent, you may walk across to the skating rink, which we are toldthemanagementintends to provide as an added attraction line. There you may buckle onto your feet the little wheeled devils and glide around until you are tired of that or until you feel that you hadbestadjournlongenough to strap a nice soft pillow to that section of your anatomy which most usually comes in contact with the floor of the skating rink.”
The Stevens also planned on having plenty of refreshments on hand at “all hours of thedayandnight.”Thepaper reported on this by saying: “The liquid refreshments may fail to have the kick that might be obtained in some Oklahoma drug stores, but they will be harmless, will comply in every particular with the Volstead law (Prohibition) and will be really refreshing and thirst allaying, so to speak. Short-order cats will always be in abundance, with smokes of choice cigars.”
The opening of the 1926 season was planned for Friday, June 4, 1926. In anticipation of the event, the Stevens ran advertisements in area newspapers and printed and passed out over 10,000 “handbills” advertising the 1926 Grand Opening.
The Grand Opening was planned to be an all-day event. The pool and picnic grounds were opening early in the day and run all day into the late evening. Then, beginning at 9:00 PM, the highway was to be closed, and a large “street dance” was planned. The dance was to run until Midnight or later. The Marshall County Enterprise newspaper had this to say about the planned event.
“This will be an event which will be something that all may enjoy, both the “noncombatants” and those who like to trip about either in the old time waltz or the bunny or any other sortof ahug. Music, delightful, soul stirring and toe tickling, will be there, and if you do not want to cavort up and down the concrete all you will have to do will be to stand by, listen to the sweet strains, watch the couples glide past in rhythmic (not rheumatic) motion and hold tight to a tree, post or some other immovable object to keep yourself from falling by the wayside and joining the joy hunters.”
Opening day, and weekend were a rousing success. Ontheonehand,thepoolsaw little use that weekend as a “Norther” blew up on Friday afternoon and made the water too cold for most who were interested in swimming. But onFridayevening,morethan 1500 people crowded into the park for picnicking and the streetdance.Folkscamefrom as far away as Gainesville and Denison, Texas, and from Ardmore, Sulphur, Durant, and other surrounding towns. The crowd danced to the “sweet strains” of music until late in the night.
Then, on Sunday afternoon and evening, another street dance was held with the Morrison “Footwarmers” Radio Artists, who provided several hours of concert music. It is reported that the crowd on Sunday rivaled the Friday night crowd.
Pettijohn Springs Amusement Park was a hit. No other amusement site in all of Southern Oklahoma or North Texas could boast crowds like those coming to Pettijohn Springs.
In addition to picnics, parties, swimming, and dances, the success of the park also caught the eye of various groups as a location for activities otherthanswimming, dancing, and picnicking. In 1926, Pettijohn Springs became a popular site for politicians, both local and statewide. It became a favorite spot for campaign rallies and “political speakings.”
1926 was the gubernatorial election year for Oklahoma, and several different political “speakings” occurred at the park. At least one included many of the candidates for Governor of Oklahoma. That speaking lasted three days. It included a picnic each day, followed by speeches from the candidates, as well as dancing and music. Hundreds turned out each day for the event.
During 1926, dances were held every Tuesday and Friday nights. Different orchestras or bands were hired to provide the music. Dance contests were also held. At one dance contest, 204 couples competed.
The park also became a favorite spot for fraternal organizations. Different civic groups like rotary clubs, church groups, and business groups regularly rented the park for meetings, parties, and fun for their groups. Groups from Ardmore, Sulphur, Ada, Sherman, Denison and other towns regularly held events at Pettijohn Springs.
Because of the pool, beginning in the summer of 1926, the local Red Cross of Marshall County began offering swimming lessons for the youth of the area. The Stevens family donated two days for the Red Cross to offer swimming and life-saving lessons in the pool.
The summer of 1926 was another busy and successful year for Pettijohn Springs. But in late 1926, Dr. Christopher Stevens decided that it was time for him to leave the hectic life of running an amusement park, and to return to his first love, the practice of medicine. By the first of 1927, Dr. Stevens had opened an office in Seminole, Oklahoma. He and Mrs. Stevens then moved to Seminole on the first of the year.
Dr. Stevens gave his sons, Golder and Paul the park with the intention that they would continue running the park for as long as they wished.