Lincoln Park, Grand Junction, Colorado 1930 39.075019 -108.544983 910 N 12th Street Grand Junction Mesa Colorado USA https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lincoln+Park/@39.0750192,-108.547021,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x87471c3f44f91f9d:0x5830b865 Google Map Link for Lincoln Park, Grand Junction, Colorado Before it became Lincoln Park, it was known as the Mesa County Fairgrounds, where county fairs, horse races, and other events were held. The Fairgrounds sat on what is now the northwest forty acres of the park. The entry to the Fairgrounds was near the location of the Lincoln Park Barn. The Fairgrounds also contained stables. According to In the Beginning... A History of the Districts and Schools that Became Mesa County Valley School District 51 by Albert and Terry LaSalle, the city of Grand Junction arranged for the purchase of the Mesa County Fair Grounds in 1917 through the sale of bonds. Later that year, the Fair Grounds were renamed Lincoln Park. According to oral history interviewee Howard Shults, the racetrack ran from near the present location of the Veterans Hospital and followed North Avenue west, circling around a grandstand. Horse barns were located on the present golf course, along what is now Gunnison Avenue. The park also served as an early airstrip, and air shows were held there until around 1928, when the city purchased land for an airstrip near the current Grand Junction Regional Airport. Well known pilots such as Charles Walsh, Lincoln Beachey and Barney Oldfield performed air shows at the park. Lincoln Park appears to have continued housing the Fairgrounds until at least 1925, but the Fairgrounds closed when development began to hem in the area. The Mesa County Ditch ran through the park and the north part of town. According to Richard “Dick” Williams, who was born in 1911 and grew up in Grand Junction, the “little ditch,” as the children knew it, flowed into the fairgrounds around 15th Street and Hill Avenue and angled north and west. The children would swim in the ditch. The city would back up water from the irrigation ditch and let it freeze in the area between 12th to 15th Streets and Gunnison and Hill Avenues on the fairgrounds. Children would then ice skate. The football field was built in the early 1930’s. The original football field had a small press box with a public address system on the west side. The park had a zoo from sometime in the 1930's until 1969. The zoo was apparently located across the parking lot from the old fairgrounds stadium, just north of a bridge that went across the irrigation ditch. The zoo had a male lion, Leo, and his roar could be heard from far away. After Leo was shot and killed by an unidentified assailant, the city added a female lion and cubs. The zoo also had coyotes, mountain lions, monkeys and other animals. It closed for good in 1969, to the chagrin of the community. *Some information taken from the article History: Cold Case 1954 — Leo the Lion by Garry Brewer, Post Independent, June 4, 2014. yes yes Mesa County Fairgrounds (second location)