The park, with spring fed lake was built and developed by Frank Winn, member of a prominent pioneer Clay County family with large land holdings and a pre-Civil War mansion. The boardwalk was copied from Atlantic City, N. J.
The Kansas City Clay County & St. Joe Interurban railway carried visitors to the park, as did horse-drawn buggies and motor cars that today would be premium-priced antiques. Four-lane I-35 now follows the route of the inter-urban tracks through the old park.