THE LITTLE GRANDSTAND
Written by Henry N. Patterson

Yes folks, Lincoln Park used to be a Fair Grounds. It had a half mile race track, a grand stand and an exhibition hall. It was enclosed with a high board fence. The main entrance was at 12th and Gunnison. The interurban to and from Fruita would make a stop there. Also, the city streetcars coming up 12th street made a turn west on Gunnison and carried many Fair Goers. My first recollection of it was just after WW-I. An uncle of mine visited us on his way home from being discharged from the army and we took him to the Fair. We entered through the gate at 12th and Gunnison and walked to the Exhibition Hall which was on the left side of the road in the park about where 12th and Hill is. It was later moved to where it is now and made into the Auditorium. This was in the WPA days. The original Moyer Pool had not as yet been built. After going through the exhibits we went on across the small canal, which used to go clear through Lincoln Park from somewhere east of Fruitvale. People in the south park of town used to irrigate their gardens from this and it continued west through town to farms in the west. It was about 12 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet deep.

The Little Grandstand would probably hold 1,500 to 2,000 people and faced the race track. The row of trees on the side of the Golf Course fairway #7 was parallel to the north side of the track. We saw a full rodeo from the grandstand. There were bucking horses, horse races, calf roping, Roman Riding and also chuck wagon races. This Little Grandstand was a center for a lot of events. When I was in school many athletic events were held there. Track meets in the spring. Goal posts were put up and football was played there on bare ground. This was abandoned when Stocker Field was built. In 1928 or 1929 the Western Slope Band Contest was held there. I remember playing our contest number and a strong wind up and blew the music off the music racks.

In my younger days some of us boys found out that there was treasure under the Little Grandstand. After a big day at the grandstand we would walk back and forth under the grandstand hoping to find coins that had been dropped through the large cracks of the wooden plank seats. Occasionally we were rewarded with a dime or a nickel or even a penny.

When the golf course was first built number one and number nine fairways were in the outfield of the baseball field that was put in during baseball season. Grand Junction always had summer baseball and a lot of touring teams would make a stop there. Red Blaney was one of the star pitchers and Loui Spector was always the umpire. I can remember of no one who would take away his self-imposed rule of that honor. The baseball field had no outfield fence and I saw many a home run hit through the trees. The batter would be home before the fielder could get to the ball. Remember this was all hard ground.

The number one hole of the golf course was about where the practice green is now and the number nine hole in the outfield of the present baseball field.

During these early days of the golf course it was good to me. I hunted for golf balls and I caddied. The balls were supposed to be sold back to the golf course for 10 cents each but, of course, I had to have some balls to practice with. The number three hole then was where number nine is now and you had to shoot across the canal. A lot of sliced balls ended in the canal. The number five hole was just across the canal where number five tee is now. A ball hit short there was nearly always in the water. A couple of us found out we could rake for these balls and we got quite a few of them. I made an extra long handled rake and put a little wire basket on it and was very successful. Every Monday after school was ball day for me. Again, the little Grandstand is a memory for me as I hid my rake under the Grandstand and it was never taken. This ball raking kept me in spending money for a couple of years.

After Stocker Field was built the Little Grandstand was not used as much and it met an untimely death. It supposedly was set on fire by an arsonist and had to be torn down. Maybe someone else could add to the history of the Little Grandstand.

Did you know in the early days of automobile touring the city had a public campground for the automobile tourist where they could set up tents to stay over night? It was on the present site of the tennis courts. The city also had a public ice rink about where number one tee of the golf course is now. A lot of us who took our lunch to school would go there during the noon hour to skate and eat our lunch.

For years the city had a lion cage just back of the grandstand and kept a lion there. East of there and south of the present tennis court they kept a few deer.