Abraham Lincoln once said, “‘Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.’ I suppose that’s true, but it might help make up their minds if they were able to take a spin on Nederland’s Carousel of Happiness. We happened to move to Nederland the exact same weekend as the Carousel of Happiness first opened to the public, Memorial Day weekend, 2010. The story of the Carousel is really the story of revival and community support.
Carousels reached their peak of popularity in the early 1900s when they were numerous throughout the country. One of the great carousel makers during this time was Charles I.D. Looff, who made the first carousel for New York’s Coney Island. Looff made a carousel for Saltair Park in Utah in 1910, which operated until 1959 when the park went bankrupt. At that time, the carousel was donated to the Utah State Training School where they restored it and enjoyed for another 27 years. In 1986, when the carousel was sold again to a buyer who only wanted the animals, Scott Harrison, a Nederland resident purchased the frame, took it apart, and trucked it to Nederland.
Harrison, a Marine veteran, had never carved before, but decided to start carving 50 unique animals to create a brand new carousel. Most carousels have horses, but he decided to carve fifty kinds of different animals such as lynx, cheetahs, giraffes, dolphins — up to 35 of which can be ridden. However, all of his hard work would have been for naught, if the small town of Nederland hadn’t come together to raise the $700,000 necessary to build the carousel a permanent home. The carousel is located right off Route 72/119 in the same shopping center as the B and F Market, and is well worth a stop anytime you need a dose of happiness. It definitely brings a smile to my face when I take the time to stop there…
