Lake Dolores Waterpark Renovation
Anyone that has the traveled the I-15 from Los Angeles to Las Vegas or from Las Vegas to Los Angeles may recall a closed water park halfway to their destination. The water park in Newberry Springs is known by many names, including Rock-A-Hoola and Discovery, but is best known as Lake Dolores.
Lake Dolores
The park was designed and built by John Byers for use by his extended family. Lake Dolores was named after Byers’ wife. Once known as, “The Fun Spot of The Desert!” All of the attractions were designed and built by John Byers himself. The park featured eight identical 150-foot 60-degree-angle steel water slides mounted side by side on a man-made hill, two V-shaped standing water slides, 200 ft long 40 mph zip lines, three high diving boards, and three trapeze-like swings. The park saw its peak attendance between the early 1970s and the mid 1980s. The park closed for the first time during the 1980s. Byers sold the closed park in August of 1990 to Terry Christensen.
Rock-A-Hoola
In 1995, Terry Christensen had the original water slides on the hill removed to make room for new modern attractions. The park reopened under a new name, “Rock-A-Hoola”, on July 4, 1998. The park featured the “Big Bopper” a fast, long group raft ride, and a “Lazy River” that was a more relaxed one. After the on-premise planned RV park was delayed, the park closed after only three seasons. The park filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2000, and the bankruptcy judge overseeing the case returned the property to Dolores Byers with most debts discharged.
Discovery Water park
Dolores Byers sold the property in September 2001 to S.L. Investment Group LLC of the City of Industry, California, she died a month later. After a $400,000 renovation, the waterpark reopened in May 2002 under a new name, “Discovery Waterpark”. In 2002 and 2003, the park was open on weekends. During the last season of operation in the summer of 2004, the park operated intermittently.
Dismantling
While the park had been closed since the summer of 2004, in January 2009, the park appeared in an episode of MTV reality show Rob & Big. Professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek and friends utilized the water park and its slides to perform skateboard stunts for the show.
Shortly after the show aired, the “Big Bopper” water slide was dismantled and shipped to its native Canada. It is now named “Colossal Canyon” at Cultus Lake Waterpark near Vancouver, British Columbia.
Repeatedly vandalized, much of the park was left in ruins. By August 2009 there was little remaining.
Lake Dolores Oasis Themepark February 2011
A couple fed up with hearing about high unemployment rates decided do something about it.
After finding Lake Dolores online, the couple living in Seattle decided they would do everything in their power to get the park reopened. After taking a tour in of the park in March, 2011 Oasis Themepark LLC was formed. The park was given a “voice” through various social sites MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and Blogger, just to name a few. They tracked down the company that did the site development, White Water West, to get the Rock-A-Hoola attractions recreated. In May, the couple moved from Seattle to Las Vegas to be closer to the park and make it easier to work with the current owners. Well, their work is paying off, and they will be signing the lease on August 28, 2011.