Freedomland, Paradise Lake and other parks that failed.

---

Brother Dave said:
International Village just south of Gettysburg, PA was another dismal failure during the theme park boom of the 1970s.

---

I was worried that I was the ONLY person that remembered that!

If I remember correctly, International Villiage (the shopping part of it) operated a few years before the ride area made its appearance, and lasted for a few years I think after the ride area closed.

Somewhere burried in a box of old pictures I have a snapshot of me and a friend of mine riding the Hippo train when my parents took me there way back when.

The hotel is still there, though greatly renovated with condos added, and is now known as the Eisenhour Inn and Conference Center. There is also a small FEC there now (All-Star Sports I believe it is called) with a go cart track and a building for indoor soccer. But the part of the property that housed the little park is still vacant.

And another "failed" attraction worth noting on a coaster board that was near International Villiage... the Alpine Slide at Ski Liberty near Fairfield PA, just a few miles SW of Gettysburg. It had two parallel tracks that ran down the west side of the mountain. The top part was very steep and had lots of twists and turns... the lower part was had a bit more of a gentle slope but was much straighter and you could really open your sled up and get some speed built up. It closed after only a few years. Lack of interest and also insurance reasons I hears was the reason.

IF you remember the little park at International Villiage, you might remember another failed "park" in south central PA... the ride area in the basement of Park City Mall in Lancaster PA.

That operated in the early 1970's. It was mainly kiddie rides... I can remember a little monirail that ran around the perimeter of the area, just below the ceiling, as well as a Dune Buggy kiddie car ride that went in a figure 8 patter, a Whip among other things. However the ride that sticks in my mind was a rare Keystone Kops dark ride very similar to the one that operated at Wildwood!

The mall opened sometime in the early 1970's, and we visited in or around 1973. The ride area closed not long after that. It (as well as the skating rink) was removed and replaced with a "farmer's market." Now the lower level of the mall is a food court, some small shops and a Kohls dept store... it has been renovated and remodeled so many times that it is now impossible to tell where the old ride area used to be.

*** Edited 11/6/2006 9:00:47 PM UTC by SLFAKE***

Rockin' Raceway: Pigeon Forge TN. 1999-2005

I almost forgot about that one.

LOL....ouch! Add another one to my "count".

Using rcdb (aka, the enthusiast's handyman") I found that that PARTICULAR Dragon Wagon which eluded me in Pigeon Forge is the same piece of.....er, ummm, hardware....that eluded me THIS year at Como Town....small world, huh? ;)

gator, aka, Siva... :)

I guess that one doesn't want to be slayed, huh? ;)

...PedroLand was dead when I got there....well, "mostly dead"....;)

Mini-golf course was open (in a manner of speaking), but the only people playing were the employees. Four(!) people to run a defunct golf course, at least I found all the missing employees from the platforms at GAdv... ;)

Oh, and I guess I need to add Myrtle Beach Grand Prix...that's it, I'm not posting to this thread any more, it's really starting to depress me... :(

Maybe we should come up with a list of parks that the bulk of the enthusiast community feels gator should stay away from?

---

Arthur Bahl said:

Paradise Lake was a park in eastern Ohio with four themed areas. This park lasted for two seasons in the early 1980s before it closed.

Does anyone have any more details on these parks or on other parks that disappeared soon after they originally opened.

---

Wow! This is the first time I have seen Paradise Lake mentioned, ever! I was never there, but I went to college in Wheeling, WV in 1985 and drove by the site where it had been. I can't really remember much about what I saw other than an abandoned ferris wheel on top of a hill and I think some kind of monorail. It wasn't until I did a search a few years ago that I found out what the name of it was much less anything about it. I'll do some more poking around when I have some time, I know I did find a couple sites which detailed some things from the park. It really was in the middle of nowhere.

Tom

I am shocked that Six flags Autoworld got mentions Six flags Power Plant and Six flags Atlantas did not!

autoworld: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags_AutoWorld

Power planet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags_Power_Plant

Atlantas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags_Atlantis

There was a park in Phoenix, Az. called "Legend City" in the early 1980s. I believe they opened with High Expectations, but unfortunately the park tanked.

Would Action Park be counted as a failure??? It was pretty popular when it was around, but with it's unsafe rides and intoxicated employees, would sure make it a failure in my book.

http://www.answers.com/topic/action-park *** Edited 11/11/2006 4:02:22 PM UTC by As Tro World 2k***

Another failed park is the Land of Oz (link), located at Beech Mountain, North Carolina.

Perched on the top of a mountain, the Oz-themed park opened in 1970 and was actually very successful during the first several seasons. In fact, Washington DC Daily News proclaimed the park to be the "Best new tourist attraction in America" upon it's opening. (Link)

Due to mismanagement and lack of improvements the park's attendance begin to slip, leading to it's closure after the 1980 season.

Today, the park's yellow brick road is still in place, though the land has been developed and assimilated into the adjacent ski resort.

WOW...some fantastic old shots of LoO. Check out the balloon sky ride! I always wanted to visit there. I have an old Land of Oz brochure and it looked like a cool place. I think it's a theme that could easily be explored again in a park. Isn't there a movement to build an Oz related park in the NE US?

Freedomland link: http://welcome.to/freedomland

Nashville Valley is another failed park to add to the list, although it was little more than an acre size parking lot with some rides thrown up. I drove by it about 2 weeks ago and all the rides have finally been removed, and it's now an RV lot. Anyone know where King went?

Edited to add Freedomland link *** Edited 11/12/2006 5:14:12 PM UTC by thrillerman1***

---

SLFAKE said:

And another "failed" attraction worth noting on a coaster board that was near International Villiage... the Alpine Slide at Ski Liberty near Fairfield PA, just a few miles SW of Gettysburg. It had two parallel tracks that ran down the west side of the mountain. The top part was very steep and had lots of twists and turns... the lower part was had a bit more of a gentle slope but was much straighter and you could really open your sled up and get some speed built up. It closed after only a few years. Lack of interest and also insurance reasons I hears was the reason.

*** Edited 11/6/2006 9:00:47 PM UTC by SLFAKE***

---

SLFAKE...do you know when that actually closed? I went to Gettysburg College and would loved to have ridden it while I was out at school...

They still have alpine slides all over North America. There seem to be fewer each year, probably because of the litigation issue mentioned above but there's still some around. Some are better than others but always a fun time as long as you don't lose you balance. :-)

www.alpineslides.com

www.alpineslide.com

---

BigJim4Life said:

SLFAKE...do you know when [the Alpine Slide at Ski Liberty] closed? I went to Gettysburg College and would loved to have ridden it while I was out at school...

---

No, can't help you there.

If I remember correctly, it opened sometime around 1974 or 1975 (I believe I was in 4th or 5th grade during my one and only visit there right after it opened). We went twice that year.

In the summer of 1992, Turner Productions took over the lodge at Ski Liberty for office space during the shooting of the movie "Gettysburg". When I went there to sign in and get my "background artist" (i.e. "unpaid extra") packet it was my first time back at Liberty since my two visits there in the 1970's and the slide was DEFINATELY gone by then.

By 1992, it had been gone for YEARS... unfortunately, I don't know exactly when it dissapeared. I don't think it lasted much into the 1980's (if it even made it to 1980).

I wouldn't count Action Park as a failed park because it still operates as Mountain Creek. While much has changed, a lot has stayed the same (fortunately it seems to be most of the good parts).

There was a great article about Arizona's Legend City in an issue of Roller Coaster magazine a few years ago.

Pretty cool little vid of Freedomland 1963:

http://weirdovideotoo.blogspot.com/search/label/Carnies