Old Chicago

Found another park from the Chicagoland area. This one resided in Elgin, Ill, right on the corner of I-90 and Rte 25. It was called Trout park (which still exists as a regular park today), but it was an amusement park at one time. Heck, this one was only about a mile from me.

Click here to see a brief story and picture.

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

I very vivdly remember Despenses Kiddy Kingdom as well as the water slide across from it. Dispenses had a little amusement park including a coaster and a few rides. The coaster was kind of like HSTC as I remember it. The Water slide was pretty fun. Basically it zig-zagged down the hill and there were two slides right next to each other. What was fun was if you worked it right you could shoot up over the lip inbetween them and crash down on whoever was next to you.

Have Fun!

Paul Drabek

Yah, I have read about the amusement park at Trout Park in Elgin before. I remember reading about their Circle Dip Roller Coaster as well. Once again, as with Forest Park, hard to imagine a roller coaster down along the Fox River....but, then again, that was before I-90 barged through that area with it's gigantic bridge over the river.

Sure are plenty of "old" parks from the Chicagoland area for sure. The amazing part (to me anyways) is how they have been completely erased from the ground they once stood on. At least we still have Kiddieland, Santa's Village and (of course) Great America.
*** This post was edited by MrSkyWhirl 11/11/2003 12:42:50 PM ***

I went to Old Chicago twice, once in 1978 and again in 1979. I remember it being fun, the Chicago Loop was such a big deal back then, even though I had been on the Turn of the Century at Great America.

For some reason the ride that I remember most is the Tobaggan... I loved that ride. Going to the Wendy's there was also a big treat.

This thread has made me think about all the defunct parks in the Chicago area:

Riverview

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Laugh your troubles away at Riverview, the world's largest amusement park.

This thread has made me think about all the defunct parks in the Chicago area:

Riverview - Chicago - 1904-1967

White City - Chicago - 1893 -?

Century of Progress Midway - Chicago - 1933-1934

Adventureland - Addison - 1960's-1980ish?

Forest Park - Forest Park - 1907-1922

Playland - Willowbrook - ?-1970's

Trout Park - Elgin - ?

Dispensa's Kiddie Kingdom - Oak Brook Terrace - ?-1980's

Old Chicago - Bolingbrook - 1975-1981

Hillcrest - Lemont - 1952-2003

Kiddietown - Chicago - ?-1966?

Kiddieland? - (95th St) Chicago - ??

I think this list is mostly complete. Anyone else have any additions?

Mike

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Laugh your troubles away at Riverview, the world's largest amusement park.
*** This post was edited by Riverview Mike 11/11/2003 2:20:12 PM ***

Heres a list from defunctparks.com

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

Thanks for all the input here on Old Chicago. Thanks Paul for the link to your OC site...very informative. That must have been quite a sight to see the Barnstormer airplane ride swooping round and round inside the building.

You Chicagoans sure have been fortunate throughout the years to have had all those parks!

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Nashville needs a theme park!
*** This post was edited by thrillerman1 11/11/2003 2:56:49 PM ***

To bad most of us weren't around when these parks were in existence.

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

Trout Park was on the south side of Elgin not where I-90 crosses the Fox. I have been to the site several times and there are a couple of footers still there from the coaster.

Thanks for the compliments on my site. I just try to have fuin and share what I love to do which is going to parks with family and friends.

Have Fun!

Paul Drabek

I was at Old Chicago once, and come to think of it, it was either in 1980 or 81, so right about the time it was shut down. The park itself wasn't open, but the food court was. It was the very first time I ever had a "Gyros" sandwich...

-Escher

Must have been in 1980 since the rides were there, but not open. Maybe it was even in 79... gosh, it was a lifetime ago.. :-)

*** This post was edited by escher26 11/11/2003 7:08:15 PM ***

To continue on the tangent in this Old Chicago thread....

Paul, where exactly was it? Was my understanding (apparently incorrect) that the amusement park was located in the same area that Trout Park is today....which is relatively close to the I-90 bridge over the Fox. Was Trout Park a LOT bigger then it is now and extended further South (away from the bridge) than it is today? If you've seen the footers in person, I'd be interested to know exactly where they are at (as I bike/rollerblade the trail along the river quite a bit and wouldn't mind going for a "hunt" sometime to look for them).

Thanks for correcting me, in any case. It's just too bad that parks like Forest Park and Trout Park closed shop SO long ago.....not too many people around today that has vivid memories of either place. Be neat to hear some first hand accounts of what-all these places had...more than just a postcard picture of some fuzzy black and white photos.
*** This post was edited by MrSkyWhirl 11/11/2003 6:54:20 PM ***

It's been about 12 years so I might not be able to exactly direct you but it was south of Elgin on US-31. I believe the park is now "Fox River Park" but I could be mistaken on that one. It's been ages since I've even been up there. I used to live in Sleepy Hollow and went to ECC for a year and a half from 90-92. Check with the Elgin Historical Society for info. A while back I wanted to do a huge section of my site on all the defunct parks in Illinois (Peoria, Springfield, Decatur, Vandalia etc...) and I contacted the EHS to start on Trout Park. In a few emails exchanged I found out that they did in fact have a collection on it and had access to a man who worked there. Of course the problem for me was getting up there. If you're in the area check it out and let me know what you find out. Heck if they have any pictures I have no problem hosting them on Negative-g so others can check them out.

Have Fun!

Paul Drabek

So Paul, the former Trout Amusement park was off of Rte 31 south of downtown along the fox river?

Trying to get an idea and possibly go snap some pics since I live in Elgin.

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

I remember Dispensa's Kiddie Kingdom as a huge toy store in a castle. Is that a false memory?

Boblogone it's not a false memory. The huge castle was a monster toy store and the park was right next to it. The last time I was there was a few weeks before they closed. We just happened to be in the area and stopped and I remember Mr Dispenses was runing the rides because we were the only people there and told us about the it all closing and how he was retiring to Florida. I wish I could find out more about that coaster. Hey I heard something about someone getting injured or killed when they dismantled the coaster, does anyone know about that?

Have Fun!

Paul "Ex-Chicagoan" Drabek

I visited Old Chicago in 1975 and another time or two in subsequent years. When I first went inside, I was wondering "where is the park?". The mall was laid out as a huge square with the mall entrance in the middle of one side of the square. The amusement park entrance was in the middle of the opposite side of the square. That meant that you had to walk all the way to to the far side of the mall to get into the park.

From the mall itself, there was practically no clue that the amusement park existed. The only clue really was that some shops had windows that looked out onto the park. But if you didn't go inside those shops, you probably wouldn't have noticed.

The Chicago Loop was my first ride on a coaster that went upside down. The flume was quite lame -- about the lamest ever built. You slowly traversed a short flat route before ascending the lift for the splashdown. They had one other small steel coaster and a variety of flat rides -- all pretty much standard fare.

I never went to Dispensa's Kiddie Kingdom, but I can still hear the song from the commercial in my head: "Kids are KING at Dispensa's Kiddie Kingdom!" ... over and over again.

I also never went to Adventureland in Addison. But I did see it from the outside while it was closed. Their radio ads used to rave about their coaster, the "Italian Bobs", I think. It was basically a Zyklon or Galaxy or similar. The park did not look to be very big.

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Steven
http://www.greatamericaparks.com/

Adventureland was a small place, I do remember them having a Whip and a Roll-O-Plane, lived in Bloomingdale for a while, not far from Adventureland. Spent a birthday at Old Chicago.

Steven, why did you have to bring up the song?

Ray Rayner and Clutch Cargo............

There is only one Trout Park in Elgin. It is located at Rte. 25 and I-90. It was also home to a professional baseball team at one point. Take a look at the history at this site - http://www.troutparkbaseball.org/history.html
Here's a MapQuest map of the area.
It is a scant half mile from my new home (I just moved, Chitown)... *** Edited 11/13/2003 5:39:58 PM UTC by redman822***

Here is the email response I got from the museum director at the Elgin, Illinois Historical Society...

As far as I know the amusement park was always in Trout Park down by the river. The amusement park went farther south along the river than the park space is now. We have some materials here at the Museum if you want to research further.

I will take her up on her offer when I get some free time - I'll let you all know when I do this.