Among the prominent developers and promoters of these parks was one T. H. Eslick, AKA Thomas Henry Eslick, AKA Thomas Harold Eslick, AKA Tallemache Heriot Eslick, AKA Uncle Harry. Harry was married to the sister (Florence) of my grandmother (Ethel) and I would occasionally hear stories about him as I grew up in Oregon.

In the last years of his life, my father passed on to me a slim file of information he had collected about his uncle - he always called him Uncle Harry and the name stuck with me. My father had long been intrigued by Eslick whom he characterized as the most interesting person on his side of our family. Although I have no recollection of Uncle Harry (who died when I was a young child in the late 1940's), I have clear memories of visiting my great-aunt Florence in Portland when I was growing up in the 1950's and early 1960's. When we dropped by to see her, we would often leave with an odd item or two that had been pulled from a chest full of curios that she and Thomas had somehow acquired in the their travels. These included such items as a copper bowl reputed to be from Pompeii, a small Egyptian statue of unknown antiquity and provenience, and a knife from Fiji that was made from a human femur. At the time of his death, Uncle Harry and Florence had moved back from Australia to Eugene, Oregon, and he was reportedly busy trying to put together yet another new project in the Blue River area of the Western Cascades.

Mr. Eslick, who is an Englishman, has been the designer and constructing engineer of amusement parks in many parts of the world. His Australian Work includes Luna Park, Melbourne, and White City, Sydney, as well as Luna Park, Brisbane.