Yes, it was and as to what happened, well … a lot of stuff. Rising seemingly from the middle of nowhere on the north side of I-15, the park went by various names but its original name, Lake Dolores, is the one that seems to have stuck in people's minds. There is even a Yahoo group and Facebook page (curated by the founder’s grandson) dedicated to the erstwhile oasis, as well as an official site, CaliWaterPark.com. The attraction's saga is as convoluted as its water slides.
Two years ago, a formal proposal was made to convert Rock-A-Hoola into a 1,400-unit retirement community. That didn’t happen, either.
Filmmakers Dawn Fields and Darren Danks are hoping to release a documentary about Lake Dolores next year, having started filming last June. In the meantime, their Web site (DesertWaterPark.com) hosts numerous photo essays on this historical curio, believed to be the first water park in the U.S. LVA is indebted to Fields and Danks for most of the history that follows.
The titular lake is man-made, fed by the waters that give the nearby community of Newberry Springs its name. The park was the brainchild and of local entrepreneur John Robert Byers, who named the lake after his wife and designed many of the attractions. He originally conceived it, roughly 50 years ago, as a private hangout for his family, a notion he subsequently expanded – in 1962 -- to include a public campground and an area for off-roading. Diving boards, zip lines, trapezes, 10 standing and sitting water slides (made of stainless steel), even a jet-ski race course were added over the course of the Sixties and Seventies. Some of these thrill rides were quite dangerous, which eventually gave rise to a three-page waiver that would-be aquanauts had to sign before entering the park.
The heyday of Lake Dolores coincided with that of roller derbies and professional wrestling. L.A.-based viewers of those late-night staples could expect to see TV spots for Lake Dolores, memorable for their idiosyncratic graphics. But the 1980s saw a waning in the park’s popularity, leading to the park’s closure.
In 1990, Byers (who died in 1996) sold Lake Dolores to an Oxnard, Calif.-based group of investors. Five years later, they augmented Byers' original, straight-ahead water slides with curlicue ones. Having redubbed the park Rock-A-Hoola, they opened for business in 1997. The name was a play on a 1961 Elvis Presley song, in keeping with Rock-A Hoola's retro theme. A giant raft ride -- the "Big Bopper" -- and an extensive lazy river were added.
By coincide, LVA blogger David McKee was in the vicinity of Rock-A-Hoola recently and wrote an entry about it in Stiffs & Georges, which he accompanied with some 1998 promotional footage of the attraction. Check it out.
