Back in 1941, Louis Koch, a retired businessman was from Evansville, Indiana, visited Santa Claus, another Indiana town. It’s not clear whether it had taken him until his retirement to first visit a town with an interesting name just 40 miles away, but maybe he’d been busy. He evidently brought some kids with him, or met some there, or even just imagined some, but he was reportedly “dismayed” that when children came to “Santa Claus,” there wasn’t any Santa Claus.
The town didn’t start out as Santa Claus, by the way. In 1854, when it was first settled, it was called “Santa Fe” (and the “Fe” was pronounced “fee”). That was working out fine until a couple of years later when they wanted a post office, the Post Office Department told them they couldn’t have a post office called “Santa Fe, Indiana” because there already was one,and had been since 1849.
“Just a minute; stay right where you are,” replied the townsfolk, and they had a series of meetings to decide to call their town (and its new Post Office) “Santa Claus”. Just as an aside, the Santa Fe, Indiana post office was closed in 1917, but one in Santa Claus is still there.
Anyway, Koch thought the children should be able to visit Santa Claus all year round. It’s possible that he didn’t get a complete tour of the town beforehand; “Santa’s Candy Castle” had been there since 1935, and the same year a 22-foot-high statue of Santa Claus was erected on the tallest hill in town. The statue had been erected by a local entrepreneur, Carl Barrett, who told everyone the statue was built for the ages out of solid granite. Years later people wondered why the “solid granite” was cracking, only to find out the statue was made of concrete instead.
Barrett was using the statue, as well as Santa Claus Park, which he developed, was trying to compete with Milt Harris, another entrepreneur who’d opened the Candy Castle, along with it’s adjacent “Toy Village” (stocked with toys sorted by manufacturer) and “Santa’s Workshop”, where there was an actual person making wooden toys (which, of course, were for sale). The two had a feud that went on for years with lawsuits in both directions, and finally ended up in the state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, they took their eyes off their respective Santa Claus projects, which weren’t maintained, and in the case of the Candy Castle, was eventually vacant.
But in 1941 everything was still in operation. So it’s a bit of a mystery why Lou Koch thought the town needed something else Santa Claus themed. He’d probably been to (or heard about) Indiana Beach, the only amusement park in the state. It had opened in 1926, and had some “thrill rides” as well as a band hall and dance floor. But amusement parks in those days weren’t entirely aimed at children, so Koch thought something called “Santa Claus Land” — maybe with a little railroad just for kids — would be a great idea.
He was just about to start construction when World War II intervened. But as soon as the war was over, Koch started construction, and Santa Claus Land opened on August 3, 1946, just as you were starting to wonder what all this has to do with today. It had a kids’ train ride, along with some other rides just for kids — and the whole thing was free.
The park did pretty well, adding rides, a reindeer ranch, a “Jeep-go-Round”, and more. Even when they started charging (only adults) 50 cents to get in, in 1955, people kept coming. And, of course, Santa Claus Land had their own Santa Claus. In the 1950s it was Jim Yellig, whose daughter married Louis Koch’s son William in 1960.
They changed the name of the park to “Holiday World” in 1984, and added a Halloween-themed area and another one for July 4th. It was probably just an oversight that there wasn’t an Arbor Day area, especially since Arbor Day is August 3. To be honest, that’s only in Niger. In the US, every state celebrates Arbor Day, but on different dates.
It’s possible that the date for Niger’s Arbor Day was chosen because it was the anniversary of Santa Claus Land. I mean, probably not, but you never know. Maybe they had a feeling that in 1993 the park would open an Africa-themed water park called “Splashin’ Safari”, with rides called Congo River, Crocodile Island, and Bamboo Chute. OK, that last one isn’t exactly African, but what about “ZOOMbabwe”, the world’s largest enclosed water slide?
In 2006 Holiday World added another holiday: Thanksgiving. Visitors had probably been complaining that “Splashin’ Safari” had nothing to do with a holiday, so they tried to make amends (once again snubbing Arbor Day). You can still get burgers and pizza at the Thanksgiving World snack bars though; you don’t have to have roast turkey and sweet potatoes. In fact you probably can’t get roast turkey at all; the holiday theming of Holiday World isn’t as consistent as it once was. Nowadays it’s limited to holiday-oriented theme music played in each section, and the opportunity, every day, for kids to talk to Santa Claus if they want to.
But you can visit the park and not meet Santa at all. After all, the guy can be pretty elusive. Look what happened in 1941; Louis Koch visited town and completely missed Santa’s big statue, the candy castle, the park, the toy village, and the workshop!
