Goodbye for now: Old Town owner plots new family entertainment concept

CASPER, Wyo. — Casper’s Old Town Family Fun Center will close permanently after January next year, but the current owner says it won’t be the final goodbye for her or the beloved facility.

Juliann Harvey owns and operates the Old Town miniature golf and entertainment center located along the Platte River behind the Best Western Downtown Casper hotel complex, previously known as the Parkway Plaza.

The complex had been closed for some time as the hotel underwent ownership and operator changes. Juliann reopened Old Town in 2021 after moving with her husband and three children from Colorado’s Front Range.

Before moving here, Juliann’s family was already familiar with and fond of the facility. “My husband was first working [in Casper] before we moved here, and we’d stay at the hotel and my kids would play here,” she said. That was around 2015. A few years later, the family ended up moving here permanently, but the miniature golf course had closed by then.

“It was kind of a fluke when we found out they were going to lease it,” she said. Looking to book a family event, Juliann called up the hotel and was told Old Town was closed, but that it was available to lease as a business.

“I’d been researching family entertainment for years, and when they told me they’d lease it out, everything just unfolded from there.”

Juliann is an architect by trade, with experience in marketing and entrepreneurship. After moving to Casper, she started selling shirts for local school clubs and sports, and was eager to get into the family entertainment business.

The Old Town facility had been idle for at least two years by the time Juliann took over. The golf course with its idealized depiction of early Casper was faded and overgrown with weeds, and the building needed major plumbing work. The two fountain systems on the course were also problematic — one they got figured out relatively quickly, but the other took a bit longer. “We’d been working on it for three years trying to get it working,” she said. “We finally figured out how, and then we discovered the leaks.”

“We did a lot of repainting and reinforcing the patio above, because it had gotten pretty rotten up there.”

All the hard work has paid off. They’ve been profitable, and many longtime Casper residents who played there as children now bring their kids.

“It’s been kind of awesome,” she said. “I hear all those stories and they’re so cool.”

“Now, what we’ve figured out is that we want to take it further, and this location just won’t work for us,” Juliann said. “It’s not about the success or failure of this space, it’s just that what we want to do requires a different space.”

What she envisions is a large family entertainment facility that can offer far more attractions that include but also go beyond arcade games and miniature golf. Her hope is to purpose-build a facility with multiple indoor options, without having to rely on Casper’s often unforgiving weather.

“It gets windy outside, it gets snowy or rainy,” she said. “The golf course is open all year long, but the times that you want to play when there’s nothing better to do [because of the weather], you can’t play.”

“We want to do something where we can have a fun, cool and safe environment and have plenty to do so you don’t have to remember that it’s windy outside,” she said.

She is keeping her concepts quiet for now, but has been looking for ideal locations and building options.

Juliann says while she and her future business are moving on from Old Town, this doesn’t mean the end for the old facility that is so loved by Casper residents.

“I know somebody interested is already coming in,” she said. “We resurrected it from doing nothing to where it is now, and they have the opportunity to do something different.”

Her run at Old Town ends after January. The last day open to the public will be a big going-away party on Jan. 5. After that, there are events booked at the space throughout the month, and there are still openings for building rentals until then.

After that, she’ll concentrate on developing a new business concept and model, and hopes to reopen under a new brand and theme in a year or two.

Juliann says she believes that family entertainment options are essential for Casper, both as a community and as a tourist destination.

“We know a lot of people come into this city for sporting events and shopping and whatnot; we want them to stay longer,” she said.

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