America’s oldest water park is now loved by skaters and famous musicians after being abandoned for decades

Take the water from a water park, add a bit of graffiti and community, and what do you have?

Lake Dolores in California, just two hours from Las Vegas, was a 273-hectare canal of artificial lakes in the 1960s that invited passersby to take a quick dip.

The park gained popularity in the neighborhood until the late 1960s, when attractions such as slides and zip ties were added.

Eventually, Dolores began its first attempts as a water park, expanding it to include a lazy river and an arcade, but the makeshift theme park did not last long.

After a failed deal in 1986 to convert the site into an RV resort, the park vacillated between opening and closing for a decade and a half.

As part of a $20 million expansion plan in 1999, 18 new slides and a raft ride were added, cementing the park’s status as a water park.

However, the landmark seemed to be plagued by misfortune, as a series of unfortunate events befell the park’s owners and workers that same year.

In just three seasons, the park accumulated $3 million in debt and an employee was paralyzed in an accident. In 2004, it was awarded $4.4 million in damages.

Not surprisingly, the water park filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2000, which culminated in a Chapter 7 liquidation six months later.

Despite a $400,000 renovation project in 2002 that saw the park reopen under its new name, Discovery Waterpark, its hours were quickly reduced to weekends only, leading to its permanent closure in 2004.

The disused park remained empty for years – until humble skateboarders arrived.

Rob Dyrdek and his friends used the former water park and its dull slides for stunts on his MTV reality show in 2008, inspiring others to do the same.

The media attention brought TrustoCorp, a group of New York artists, to the area to transform the park into an exhibition by repainting signs and buildings with artistic statements.

Since then, the park has gained new status as a public gathering place for local skateboarders and graffiti artists and as a filming location for YouTubers.

The landmark even caught the attention of professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, who shot a commercial for the Mini Cooper there in 2015.

Lake Dolores is far more than just a relic of the past. It has left its mark on skater subculture and pop history.

Singer Kesha chose the place as the setting for her music video “High Road” in 2020.

News of Dolores has even made international waves, as K-pop supergroup BTS filmed their 2022 Proof Live mini-concert at the band’s compound.

The concert, which was streamed live on YouTube, has been viewed over 24 million times so far.

Kilian Martin, a freestyle skateboarder, told SFGate that despite the passing of years, Dolores “felt untouched, like it had just been closed.”

“I love skating in a place like this, much better than skating in a skate park where it seems like everything is designed for you to do certain tricks in certain places,” he said.

But a water park … while it’s not designed for skateboarding, it does offer the opportunity to be creative and do things that no one has ever done before.”