Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
The Joy Zone, nearly a mile in length, is a broad avenue bordered with
closely packed places of amusement. There are more than one hundred
concessionaires, with two hundred and twenty buildings devoted to
refreshment or pleasure, including a few in other places on the grounds.
Here are all sorts of divertissements, from roller coasters to really
great educational sights like the Panama Canal or the Grand Canyon.
By common consent the Panama Canal is the most noteworthy feature of the
Zone. Indeed, it ought not to be on the Zone. It should have had a place
in the Exposition proper, as one of its finest exhibits. The show is a
working reproduction of the Panama Canal, on so large a scale that it
covers five acres. The landscape of the Canal Zone is faithfully
reproduced, with real water in the two oceans, the Gatun Lake, the
Chagres River and the Canal. The visitor sees it from cars which travel
slowly around the scene, and which are fitted with telephonic
connections with a phonograph that explains the features of the Canal
Zone as the appropriate points are passed. Next to seeing the Canal
itself, a sight of this miniature is the most interesting and
instructive view possible of the great engineering feat. In one way it
is even better than a trip through the Canal. It gives the broad general
view impossible from any point on the Isthmus itself.
In much the same class are the reproductions of the Grand Canyon and the
Yelllowstone Park. The Grand Canyon has an added interest in the
presence of Navajo and Hopi families living in reproductions of their
desert homes. Representing other native races, there are the Samoan
Village, the Maori Village, and the Tehuantepec Village. All these
people are genuine and live in primitive style on the Zone, though, to
tell the truth, they are quite likely to use college slang and know
which fork to use first. Not on the Zone, but proper to be mentioned
here, are the Blackfoot Indians brought to the Exposition from Glacier
Park by the Great Northern Railroad. Eagle Calf is a real chief of the
old days, and his band is a picturesque group.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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