5280 The Long, Bittersweet Legacy Elitch Gardens Will Leave in Denver One writer reminisces about the 130-year-old theme park—and Denver institution—and why keeping it in the Mile High City matters. By Jay Bouchard July 22, 2021 Not to see Elitch’s is not to see Denver. Those nine words, which have served as Elitch’s slogan for most of its more than 100-year history, have been printed on ferris wheels, carousels, and in flower beds, and it’s beckoned to the generations of locals and tourists alike who flocked to the park in the decades after it was first built in northwest Denver.