We think happiness is important and we believe every smile here turns into countless more beyond our doors. The Carousel has served the Nederland community and visitors from around the world since 2010, providing over 1 million rides and inspiring at least that many smiles.

The Carousel of Happiness is a blending of new and old creations. It is the spirit of the century-old carousel combined with new carvings, along with the inspiring story of Scott’s creation, that encourages a new set of smiles from young and old visitors, alike.

All the original bearings, gears, and metal work have been restored or rebuilt for continued use. A few pieces have been replaced because of safety concerns. The original electric motor and controller were retooled by General Electric to conform to modern day use.

A new floor was built using southern yellow pine, a material that was used in many original carousel floors. The wood used was cut down in 1890 and used as cribbing for whiskey barrels for a Seagram’s plant in Peoria, Illinois. When that plant was dismantled in the 1990s, this wood was resold and used as floor planks for the Carousel of Happiness.

Rounding boards, the decorative panels which surround the top of a carousel, were missing by the time the carousel was taken apart in 1986, so rounding board paintings from other carousels were donated by collector Marianne Stevens and installed. The outside set are contemporary with the carousel itself, painted by the “Michelangelo of the Midway,” August Wolfinger. The paintings were rescued from a 1910 carousel originally built for the Silver Beach Amusement Park in St. Joseph, Michigan, by Fred Dolle, Looff’s brother-in-law. They were repaired and restored by the late Denver restoration artist Edwin Friedman.

Most of the inside paintings, depicting endangered species, were painted in the 1990s by V. Vladimir for a new carousel then being built in San Antonio, Texas. But because there were only 16 paintings and we have 18 sections to this carousel, local artist Dorothy Emerling generously volunteered to paint two extra panels representing polar bears and Amur leopards.

The Carousel of Happiness opened on Memorial Day 2010 with a silent memorial to recognize the service of fallen veterans, including two of Scott’s Marine Corps friends. Our bare-bones staff is supplemented with many volunteers to help us keep an affordable ticket price, and we offer several benches and a wheelchair ramp so that the carousel is both accessible and inclusive. After spinning for 12 years, we sold our one-millionth ticket in July of 2022, and look forward to continuing our mission to inspire happiness.

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