Lake Olympia and Glenbrook Park

by Tanis Thorne & Vince Seck

(Hardback, 160pp)

“Lake Olympia and Glenbrook Park” is the story of recreation in the Glenbrook Basin over a hundred year period from 1851 to 1958.

“Once upon a time, there was a world-class racetrack there. And later a lake in the pines. There was an island in that lake and a dance pavilion on that island. On a summer’s night Japanese lanterns shone on a wooden bridge that led to the pavilion where moonlight dancing called in three-quarter time to the town nearby.”

The book benefits from the fresh and knowledgeable first-hand accounts by Vince Seck, whose family owned Lake Olympia, and the research and writing of a professional historian.

It embarks on something entirely new: the recreational history of Nevada County. Before it became a center for shopping, the Glenbrook Basin hosted a world-class racetrack and later a splendid resort with an artificial lake.