Last Friday night, this long-in-the-tooth newsdog had the honor and privilege of witnessing the future of history in this Cowtown. We were invited to present a brief history on Heim’s Electric Park, first located in the East Bottoms adjacent to the Heim Brewery, then re-located to 46th and The Paseo in 1907. The event was held in the long abandoned Heim brewery elevator and was attended by roughly 300 people, most of whom were under the age of 30.

It wasn’t the only event over the weekend that celebrated history; a Sunday evening cocktail party was held in the also long abandoned 8th street trolley tunnel, under what is now the State Street Securities building at 8th and Washington. Again, largely attended by the under 30 set with an interest in local history.

What’s missing in both of these events? Both of these uber-cool local history events took place in actual historic and abandoned venues, far outside the confines of a stuffy library or presentation hall. Let this old Newsdog be clear; if this is the future of local history, the Dog is pretty skippy about it.

Standing on a stack of pallets with a string of electric lights hung by jute twine from the 40 ft. ceiling in a former brewery bottling house – or swilling gin inside a dank abandoned trolley tunnel – is exactly what needs to happen to attract younger preservationists to the fold, experiencing history where it happened. The Dog was quite impressed and would like to throw a shout out to the local Obscura Society, as well as Squeezebox Productions, for two stellar history events.