Don't Start Over--Just Fix It!

I try to keep this blog interesting and fun to read, but today I’m going to delve into a little Boise history, so if you think history is boring, keep reading!! I desperately hope that when we die and go to heaven we can, somehow, experience life in other parts of the world, or in other parts of history. It would be so fun to live for a day as a pharaoh in Egypt in 1200 BC (don’t question my time reference, I have no idea when the pharaohs lived), or be the Queen of England for a week, or be a high roller in Vegas for a couple of nights, or spend a day as a kid with a dollar in Boise Idaho in 1930. Oh, you think that last one sounds boring, eh? Well you don’t know what I am about to tell you! If you’ve ever been to the Natatorium, you know that it is a city pool—a pretty cool one as far as city pools go. They have a slide…and a pool…I think they have nachos…maybe a drinking fountain. It is pretty nice. Okay—are you ready for the really, really, really exciting thing you are about to learn? This is pretty much as cool as the movie National Treasure. Here goes—the Natatorium used to be a beautiful building built after the design of a Moorish structure. It had a pool with a huge slide, a rock fountain at one end, was 14 feet deep, had private baths filled with natural hot water, 120 dressing rooms, and banquet rooms with hardwood floors! Additionally, there was a complex behind the Natatorium (in the area that is now a sewage treatment plant) which was called “The White City”. The White City had a roller coaster, a “fun wheel” a little steam train, and a skating rink. (I’m sort of questioning the skating rink—it came from an oral history of someone who I’m assuming was probably pretty old when he gave said history. I’ve heard/read more than one account of all the other stuff though, so I think it was real.) Okay, if you are not convinced that this is absolutely awesome, check out the photos below.

Just like so many other things that have gone the way of the earth, the Natatorium fell victim to a windstorm, a fire and people who wanted to speed up “progress”! I'm going to have to declare "shenanigans" on that last one. This is just one of those cases where new was NOT better!