OAHT 1508: Oz & US Speed Skating Trials
This Geocache is part of the Oconomowoc Area Historical Tour:
We have picked Twenty Five locations that we feel highlight the unique Oconomowoc Area history.
To earn a Geocoin, teams must pick up a 2015 Oconomowoc Area Historical Tour Booklet from the Oconomowoc Area Historical Society & Museum or download the booklet at: http://www.oconomowoc-wi.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=457
Collect 25 points as detailed in the booklet.
Please remember to record the code word or stamp your booklet from this cache in your 2015 Oconomowoc Area Historical Tour Booklet.
The Wizard of Oz in Oconomowoc
Oconomowoc was chosen as the city to have the world premiere of the film “The Wizard of Oz”. It premiered at the Strand Theatre on August 12, 1939. The Strand Theater, which stood at 169 E. Wisconsin Ave., is as much a memory as the film premiere. The theater was razed decades ago, and a parking lot now stands where the Yellow Brick Road once began. Local crowds packed the theater for the film’s entire five-day run at the Strand, to an audience of 511 people. Why was Oconomowoc chosen? Old newspaper articles state the studio needed to fine-tune its publicity campaign to meet the tastes of Middle America, and in order to do that, they needed some Middle Americans. So studio researchers chose the resort community of Oconomowoc in the Heartland as their test site.
US Speed Skating Trials
Oconomowoc also had place in Olympic Speed Skating history. Fowler Lake had long been a popular skating spot for locals. Then, in the 1920’s, fate determined that Oconomowoc’s natural winter gifts would earn a place in history as the first proving ground for Olympic speed skaters. Speed skating did not become an Olympic event until 1924, the year of the first winter games, held in Chamonix, France. However, it was not officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the first winter Olympics until 1926. Oconomowoc became key in the race for the gold in 1928 when the Olympic committee selected Oconomowoc as the first site for the U.S. Olympic speed-skating time trials. During the 1932 trial, one local paper estimated that crowds 6,000 to 8,000 people descended on the town to watch the trials. Crowd attendance went down to about 50 people at the last U.S. trials in Oconomowoc in 1939. It appears the events lost their luster with the audiences for the lack of interest in Speed Skating. As time went on the Olympic training and time trials moved from the unreliable lake ice – first to an outdoor rink at state fair grounds and later to the more-controlled environment inside the Pettit Ice Rink.
This is a two stage multi-cache which begins at the first coordinates.
The final is at: N43 06.702 W088 ??.???
??.??? = Take the year of the Wizard of Oz Premiere and add the 4 digits (of the year) to: 27916
Permission was granted to hide this cache by: Bryan Spencer Parks & Forestry Superintendent
