I have hesitated to enter this discussion, thinking someone with more info would step in. Yes the Cotton Palace was in the south Waco area, described by Ms Russel. Betros is another spelling of the young man's name. I think he was a lifegaurd at the pool. My parents and grandparents had many stories about the Cotton Palace. It was more than an amusement park. Consider it to be he Heart 'O Texas Fairgrounds and Coliseum of the early ?1900s thru the 1930s?. Many of the city/county wide social events were held there. Cotton was "King" and there was an annual celebration after the cotton crop was picked, ginned, bailed, and sold. The celebration was the counterpart of the fall harvest fairs/festivals of today. These are memories of undocumented verbal histories from over 40 years ago. My written reference material, a copy of Mayor Roger Conger's "Pictorial History of Waco", published circa 1962, is in storage. Mayor Conger wrote the history, illustrating it with the "images/plates" of photographer Gildersleeve. But if anyone would like access to the book, check the City Library, there should be a copy in their reference section. I think the book is still the best reference material on the history of Waco and much of McLennan County. It does contain sections with complete histories of the Cotton Palace and the Military Camps, Posts, Bases of that era. One of the WWI camps/bases was Camp ?Richland?Richfield?. It was on the Northwestern fringes of Waco, accessed via North 19th St, possibly near the site of the current Municipal Airport.