Omaha Exploration

The iconic metal slides inside Gene Leahy Mall offer a mixture of excitement and nostalgia for more than 40 years.

First installed in 1982, the slides were a constant source of complaints and even a few lawsuits after they were installed. They were even closed for a time after a woman broke her leg after falling off. To remediate the issue, the city added a ton of sand to the pit so that the drop off was 10 inches rather than the original 21 inches. 

The additional sand didn’t help much and the slides were closed again in 1984 after 10 injuries were reported. Referred to as the “killer slides” by city hall, the design was called dangerous by the victims. It’s worth pointing out that injuries were suffered by adults who didn’t typically go down slides in other parks and likely misjudged their weight and the speed at which they would travel. This time the city extended the end of the slide by several feet to give the slide goers a chance to slow down before reaching the end. 

In the years since, generations of children have gone down the slides using wax paper, cardboard, jackets and whatever else they could find to pick up speed and to prevent stalling out in the middle. As those kids grew up to become adults, they returned to the park with their children. Understandably, there was more than a little concern that the slides would be removed when the city announced the transformation of the park in 2018. 

Fortunately the slides remained in place and were even complimented by the addition of three other slides that are intended for smaller children. The old slides remain just as well utilized in the newly redesigned park as they were before. In fact, in the years since the park reopened, the slides have been discovered by a new generation of children and their parents who due to the added safety measures mostly stopped getting hurt while trying to re-live their youth. 

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