PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2022

P E O R I A R E T R O

WHEN THE WILD WEST RULED THE STAGE IN PEORIA

The Young Buffalo show – featuring Annie Oakley, no less — was an Al Fresco Park staple 100 years ago

BY STEVE GOSSARD

A little known but sensational part of Peoria’s history is that the city hosted a popular Wild West show in the early part of the 20th century. Though not the largest, it was certainly the finest quality show of its kind in America. In 1904, Chicago restaurant entre preneur Vernon Seaver sailed his yacht down the Illinois River looking for a pas sage fromChicago to St. Louis, intending to establish a practical route to ferry passengers to the St. Louis World’s Fair. Seaver had pioneered the development of silent filmtheaters inChicago andwas an entertainment business visionary. What he found, instead of a route to St. Louis, was an ideal location for an amusement park in Peoria. With the financial assistance of the Central City

In its first year of operation, Al Fresco featured an attraction called “The Lone Bill Wild West.” Wild West shows were enormously popular at the turn of the century, with a great deal of publicity surrounding the myths of the OldWest. The enormously popular Lone Bill Show not only played at Al Fresco, it toured throughout Illinois. In 1910, the name was changed to “The Young Buffalo Wild West,” taking the name of a popular melodrama of the time, and the show traveled widely throughout the United States. When Seaver partnered with showman Frederick T. Cummins in 1912, the consolidated show became “Young Buffalo’s Wild West and Col. Cummins Far East Show.” In time the show came to include

Vernon C. Seaver and Col. Fred Cummins,

Street Car Company, Seaver opened his park in 1908 at a site on Galena Road north of Peoria along the Illinois River. He called it “Al Fresco Park.” It was serviced by streetcars and riverboats.

64 SEPTEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE