Encyclopedia Dubuque
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KIMBEL PARK: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:IMG_5074. | [[Image:IMG_5074.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Richard Kimbel's thirteen-room home.]] | ||
PARK. Located north of the present [[ZEBULON PIKE LOCK AND DAM]], Kimbel Park was named by [[KIMBEL, Richard|Richard KIMBEL]]. He immediately began the construction of a dock, a building for his company, saloon, huge dance hall, and a thirteen-room home for his growing family. (1) | PARK. Located north of the present [[ZEBULON PIKE LOCK AND DAM]], Kimbel Park was named by [[KIMBEL, Richard|Richard KIMBEL]]. He immediately began the construction of a dock, a building for his company, saloon, huge dance hall, and a thirteen-room home for his growing family. (1) | ||
Revision as of 19:34, 4 September 2017
Being edited.
PARK. Located north of the present ZEBULON PIKE LOCK AND DAM, Kimbel Park was named by Richard KIMBEL. He immediately began the construction of a dock, a building for his company, saloon, huge dance hall, and a thirteen-room home for his growing family. (1)
Residents of Dubuque paid five cents each way for a ride aboard Kimbel's steamer "Eagle Point" to the park. (2) In 1908 the ferry launch "Cora May" operated daily trips from Dubuque. (3) Each week offered free attractions. One of the most popular shows involved a hypnotist who buried a willing subject six feet underground on a Thursday and then returned on Saturday to excavate him. The subject, a bit shaky when dug up, survived burial in good shape by using a breathing tube. (4) He received twenty-four dollars for his participation. Kimbel also offered the sight of two pure white horses plunging thirty feet into the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. (5) Open to many forms of entertainment, Kimbel even hosted boxing matches. (6) In 1906 the journeymen barbers of Dubuque hosted their employers to a picnic. On Wednesday, weekends, and holidays free fish was served to the patrons of the tavern with their order. (7) The newspaper account noted the presence of "every game known to the ingenuity of respectable manhood." (8)
Dance bands provided music to those willing to pay five cents per dance. (9) At other times, a dance would be scheduled for which the men paid fifty cents for admittance while women paid nothing. (10) Many brawls erupted between those involved in the shell games, but Kimbel never used police to maintain order. Physically tough, Kimbel also was known to occasionally use a gun to restore order.
Attendance at the park declined with the development of UNION PARK and EAGLE POINT PARK.
Shortly after the death of Richard Kimbel, the park was sold. The federal government purchased the site before construction on the ZEBULON PIKE LOCK AND DAM. (11) It is now submerged below the waters above Lock and Dam 11. (12)
UPDATE
The information written above was all that was known of this subject until June, 2017. Mike Day, intending to write an article on Kimbel Park for the Telegraph Herald, and the I spoke by phone on the subject and regretted more information had never been found. It was later thay week that the "first break in the case" occurred. In reading an article posted online by the Telegraph Herald and the CARNEGIE-STOUT PUBLIC LIBRARY, I found mention of a marriage of one of the Kimbel children to a member of the Klavitter family in Dubuque. Taking a chance, I emailed Nelson Klavitter asking if he knew of this marriage. Not only was his answer "Yes," he mentioned a family history. Clue #2. In responding to this news, I asked that a copy be sent to Mike Day and me.
The family history, an amazing document, offered a hint to a singularly important piece of information. When the term "island" was used it was enclosed in quotation marks. This generally indicates the word enclosed is not actually what it implies. A trip to the Grant County Court House and the help of two staff members answered the question. Was the famed Kimbel Park really located on an island? The maps and descriptive information found definitely said,"No."
To Richard Kimbel, the remote area of land he owned along the Wisconsin shoreline, must have seemed an island. For much of its existence, the park's activities were operated by his rules. Boats were the common means of accessing the site.
Mike Day and I met later with members of the Klavitter family to share our findings. They came prepared to share photographs.
It is my belief that unless new information is uncovered, Mike Day wrote the definitive history of Kimbel Park for the issue of the Telegraph Herald that appeared on September 3, 2017. Kimbel Park was an entertainment paradise of its day that for decades was shrouded in mystery as to its location.
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Source:
1. Dahlinger, Mark. "Shoot-Em-Up Shell Games in the Mid-Mississippi," Telegraph Herald, July 15, 1956, p. 19
2. Kruse, Len. " George Kimbel, Man of the River," My Old Dubuque. Loras College: Center for Dubuque History, 2000, p. 191
3. "The City in Brief," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, June 24, 1908, p. 5. Online: http://p8080-10.30.40.140.ezproxy.dubuque.lib.ia.us/ResCarta-Web/jsp/RcWebImageViewer.jsp?doc_id=76d75574-3467-4ecf-9df4-c2b7da149f1e/ResCarta/00000008/00000361
4. Kimbel's Park. Online: http://www.port-byron.com/captain-richard-kimbel/
5. Ibid.
6. "Caught on the Fly," Dubuque Herald, August 13, 1896, p. 5. Online: http://p8080-10.30.40.140.ezproxy.dubuque.lib.ia.us/ResCarta-Web/jsp/RcWebImageViewer.jsp?doc_id=76d75574-3467-4ecf-9df4-c2b7da149f1e/ResCarta/00000003/00000121
7. Jungblut, Lyn Klavitter. "Captain Richard Adam Kimbel," Unpublished family history.
8. "Lather Distributors Glad," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, July 31, 1906, p. 5
9. Dahlinger
10. "Local News in Brief," Dubuque Daily Herald, September 4, 1890, p. 4
11. Dahlinger
12. Kruse, Len. p. 190