In the Boulder County mountain town of Nederland, happiness is just a short ride away.

The town’s Carousel of Happiness is an attraction for all ages, one that puts the spotlight on handcrafted pieces of art made by nearby resident Scott Harrison. Harrison carved each of the approximately 35 animals mounted on the carousel, which guests can ride throughout the year.

The animals, sculpted from basswood, include a dolphin, elephant, frog, zebra and coyote. Many move up and down, while others, such as the gorilla, provide an immobile bench as the carousel rotates. Even more carved animals hang from poles or look down from wooden beams.

“Everything in this place is unique,” said Allie Wagner, outreach director for the Carousel of Happiness.

It’s been 15 years since the Carousel of Happiness opened in Nederland on May 29, 2010. Wagner said the carousel has had nearly 1.2 million riders since it opened. In 2024 alone, the carousel hosted 72,000 riders.

Aside from the occasional paint job, the animals haven’t changed much since Harrison began carving them in 1986. One new project taken on by the carousel’s human team members this year, though, is a podcast.

The “Carousel of Happiness Podcast,” which is hosted by Wagner, breaks down the attraction’s history and shares the stories of its riders. Episodes began airing in January and are published weekly. The podcast is available on streaming platforms and on the Carousel of Happiness website, carouselofhappiness.org.

One family who stopped by the carousel listened to the podcast on their drive back home to Kansas. A woman from Evergreen even discovered the carousel through the podcast.

“It’s one of the ways that we’re sharing the message of the carousel with people who can’t otherwise be here,” Wagner said.

The carousel also held its mayoral election a couple of months ago. Every two years, guests can vote in person or online for the rideable animal they think deserves the prestigious title of “mayor of the carousel.” The mayor’s duty is to “ensure the peaceful rotation of the carousel,” said Carousel of Happiness executive director Melody Baumhover.

The carousel’s previous “mayors” are the moose and the giraffe.

“Everybody has a special attachment to one animal,” Baumhover said. “Everybody’s got their favorite.”

This year, after facing stiff competition from the dragon and the lion, the carousel’s pig won the election with a total of 1,627 votes.

The mayoral election was introduced in 2021 as a fundraiser for the carousel, with participants asked to spend a dollar on each vote. But fans of the carousel have continued supporting the elections. During this year’s race, a local animal sanctuary had two real pigs visit the carousel to support the wooden pig’s mayoral run.

“It’s just an opportunity for us to be silly,” Wagner said. “This isn’t the ‘lesser of two evils’ sort of story.”

The carousel’s fans come from near and far. Recent guest book entries list visitors from Pennsylvania, New York, Chicago, Ohio, Texas and Arkansas. Other recent visitors came from Arvada, Boulder and Longmont. Some Front Range fans come at least once a month.

“There’s a lot of community support behind it,” Baumhover said. “Still, today, I would say the number one way we get new customers is just by our locals saying, ‘Hey, you guys check out the carousel yet? You have to go see the carousel.’”

Seth Johan and his 8-year-old daughter, Everly, visited the carousel Wednesday after a family camping trip. Everly rode the cheetah, while her dad rode the panda.

Johan grew up in Boulder and lives in Australia. He said the Carousel of Happiness was a “big recommendation.”

“It’s very special,” Johan said of the carousel. “You can kind of feel the love and the blood, sweat and tears in the creation itself.”

Stepping inside the carousel is a bit like stepping back in time. Its mechanism was built around 1910. A Wurlitzer band organ from 1913 serenades the riders with playful music. According to the Carousel of Happiness website, only a few hundred wooden carousels are still standing in the United States.

A big element of the carousel’s history is Harrison’s background as a Vietnam War veteran. Carving the animals was a healing hobby for Harrison, who pictured the calming image of a carousel in a mountain meadow while serving in Vietnam.

Every year the carousel puts on a Memorial Day service to honor fallen military veterans. In May of this year, the ceremony was followed by an anniversary party where carousel workers and the Nederland community celebrated “15 years of smiles.”

“People come in and they feel changed by this place,” Wagner said. “They feel different, and they want everybody that they know to feel that way.”

Carousel of Happiness rides cost $3. Children under 1 ride for free. The carousel can be found at 20 Lakeview Drive in Nederland.