Busch gardens L.A?

I was surfing on e-bay and came across this

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-60s-BUSCH-GARDENS-CA-Souvenir-Book-NR_W0QQitemZ7754331667QQcategoryZ13878QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I checked rcdb, but found nothing on this park. Was there a busch gardens in L.A, or houston in the past?

It was in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles, about 1/2-way between LAX and SFMM right off the I-405 interstate. The "park" consisted of a suspended monorail tram tour of the brewery, a log flume, a few flats, and some shows. It never had any coasters. Although the park is gone the brewery is still in operation.

Hope I'm remembering this correctly, but it sounds like the the one they used to have in St Louis as well.

I don't ever recall anything like this associated with the brewery in St. Louis.

There is Grant's Farm. Is that what you're thinking about? It's one of the Busch families estates that has a small zoo and many rolling acres full of ruminants that you take a tram through. And of course, the beer!

I haven't been in quite a while, but I think they have a carousel.

The Busch Gardens in Houston operated from 1970 to 1976. It had gardens, a boat ride, bird show and the brewery tour.

Yah...the LA one had a bird show too. It also had a boat ride right? I think Magic Mountain put it out of business. Too bad huh?

I wonder why these parks were not succesfull like the floridia and virginia parks? It seems to me that california has the population and tourisum(sp) to make it a succesfull park. *** Edited 3/31/2006 4:59:05 PM UTC by crazy horse***

Not many parents want to take their children to walk a brewery.....even though that doesn't exactly sound like a bad idea.
In all seriousness, I think it was just due to what they had to offer at the time in comparison to the surrounding parks, and that was not enough to entice many back.

It was surrounded by Magic Mountain and Universal Studios.

Yep, the Van Nuys park also had a boat ride. It took up most of the park if I remember correctly.

It was never really an amusement park, it was a beer garden. I think it was free up until they added the Log Flume section of the park. I don't remember that section being open for very long before they closed it to expand the brewery.

You can see a good picture of the park here:

http://themepark.sitesbyrob.com/images/busch/busch_gardens_aboveLA.jpg

I don't think Disney and/or SFMM had much to do with the closing of the park. I'm pretty sure they realized beer was more profitable given the limited amount of space.

The park was land-locked...and the land it occupied was very valuable.

I remember the bird show, I was a ankle biter at the time. Cool park from what I can remember.

Where is/was the brewery/park located in Houston?

Anyone have pics of the Houston location?

My dad said he whent to Bush Gardens L.A. when he was a little cub scout when he lived in Orange County. He said that it was a small cheesey little theme park. He said that it was right neer Six Flags Magic Mountain and down town L.A.

No wonder why it closed down!!!! *** Edited 4/2/2006 2:49:32 AM UTC by Hamster Boy***

Your dad's memory isn't exactly correct. The park was not "neer" SFMM nor downtown LA.

Is it even possible for anything to be near SFMM AND downtown L.A.?

I've only been to SoCal a couple of times, but from my memory, the two are quite a ways apart.

Mike, who lives kind of near Kansas City and Indianapolis

Downtown LA and SFMM are 40 miles apart...kinda hard to be "neer" both. Or even "near" both ;)

Parts of the monorail track are still at the brewery. There was a fairly indepth story about the park on one of those local PBS shows, and it had a lot of information with a great history of the property. They even talked to some employees that worked at the brewery then and now.
*** Edited 4/3/2006 8:24:50 AM UTC by GoliathKills***

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Rowtyd said:
Where is/was the brewery/park located in Houston?

Anyone have pics of the Houston location?

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The Houston Brewery is still there on the east side of Houston on Gellhorn Drive at I-10 and I-610. I haven't been able to find any pictures.

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DevilDucky said:You can see a good picture of the park here:

http://themepark.sitesbyrob.com/images/busch/busch_gardens_aboveLA.jpg

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The gallery from the same site has some pretty cool images:

http://themepark.sitesbyrob.com/galleries/busch.htm