Visit Heritage Park
1900 Heritage Dr. S.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2V 2X3
Email: info@heritagepark.ca
Phone: 403.268.8500
Big Eli Ferris Wheel
Closed
Hours of Operation
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Monday
Closed
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Tuesday
Closed
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Wednesday
Closed
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Thursday
Closed
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Friday
Closed
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Saturday
Closed
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Sunday
Closed
The Historical Village is closed for the season, aside from special events. Heritage Plaza, home to unique shops, Gasoline Alley Museum, Railway Café and the Selkirk restaurant, is open year-round!
Exhibit Details
Category
Rides
About the Big Eli Ferris Wheel
The great Ferris wheel featured at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition in 1893 was designed by bridge engineer G.W.G. Ferris. W.E. Sullivan, a young bridge engineer from Roodhouse, Illinois, was so impressed by Ferris’ invention that he and machinist J.H. Clements developed a smaller wheel incorporating open buggy seats in 1900. When the Eli Bridge Company was formed in 1903, Sullivan’s investors insisted that he use that name so they could go back to making bridges when the silly Ferris wheel fad was over.
The Sullivan family’s Eli Bridge Company is still going strong after more than a century, and has sold portable Ferris wheels to places as far away as India. The Eli Bridge Company sold this No. 5 Big Eli Wheel to Alonzo Palmer of St. Thomas, Ontario, in 1923, and subsequent owners used it at carnivals around Ontario. Jim Conklin, of Conklin and Garrett Ltd., purchased the wheel for his antique midway display in 1977, and he donated it to Heritage Park in 1984.
Ride the Big Eli Ferris Wheel
All midway rides are included with regular park admission, and are available daily during the summer operating season (weather depending).
