Sloan Lake is located on the western edge of Denver's city limits, adjacent to the suburbs of
Lakewood,
Edgewater and
Wheat Ridge. The approximate boundaries are
Sheridan Boulevard to the west, 17th Avenue to the south, Raleigh St. to the east, and 26th Avenue to the north. There are no tributary streams to the lake.
History on the frozen surface of Sloan's Lake in winter. The foothills of the
Rocky Mountains are in the background. The true history of the creation of Sloan Lake may never be officially known, but during the settlement of the Denver area in the mid to late 19th century, the lake did not exist. Since spring 1859,
South Golden Road connecting Denver and the western suburb of
Golden crossed through where Sloan Lake is now. In December 1866, under the newly enacted
Southern Homestead Act, Thomas M. Sloan received a
patent for the land from US President
Andrew Johnson to use the land for agricultural purposes, farming, and cattle-raising. A commonly accepted and incorrect legend states that Sloan dug a well on the land, inadvertently tapping into an underground
aquifer, and that when he awoke the next morning, part of his farmland was covered in water. That flooded this part of South Golden Road, and the realigned thoroughfare, now known as
Colfax Avenue, would become the major east-west thoroughfare in this part of the city. But, according to
gold rush era stagecoach driver Bill Turner, the lake appeared sometime between when he left for Kansas in June 1861 and when he returned in early 1863. It is possible that Sloan occupied the land prior to patenting it. However, it is unlikely that Sloan would have applied for a patent to farmland that was under water, and just as unlikely that the patent would have been granted under the Southern Homestead Act. The lake once exceeded and extended north and west beyond its current size, but portions were filled north of 25th Avenue and west of Sheridan Boulevard. The area surrounding the lake was once home to an
amusement park and swimming facility known as
Manhattan Beach. Opened to the public 27 June 1881, it was the first amusement park to be built west of the
Mississippi River (it burned down in 1908 and was rebuilt as
Luna Park later that year); mishaps, and competition from other such attractions in the vicinity (
Elitch Gardens and
Lakeside Amusement Park), led to its closure in 1914. Cooper Lake, a separate body of water just southeast of Sloan's Lake, fell under the jurisdiction of the federal
Works Projects Administration in the 1930s, and a plan was developed which involved building channels beneath the surface of the water on both lakes. This essentially created one body of water that has commonly become known as Sloan's Lake. The size of the present-day combined Sloan's Lake and Cooper Lake is , and is managed by the Parks and Recreation division of the
City and County of Denver.
Wildlife and Habitat Sloan's Lake is a seasonal and year-round home to a variety of birds, fish and other wildlife. Birds include white pelicans, mallard ducks, Canada geese, seagulls, barn swallows, house finches, and common night hawks. Cormorants and herons find refuge from shore-based predators in colonies on Cooper Island and feed on black crappie, carp and trout stocked by Colorado Parks and Wildlife agency. Cottonwood trees, cattails and bluegrass grow along the shoreline, and the lake waters support duckweed, algae and other native and invasive aquatic plants.
Penny Island Found in the center of the lake, Penny Island is a mostly barren 67,396 square foot
island. It houses a manmade
osprey nesting structure constructed in 2014. From spring to early summer, the area attracts photographers and bird enthusiasts who come to observe these birds firsthand. The island is also a common attraction for local amateur drone pilots. ==Sloan's Lake Park==