Does anyone have information and or pictures of Trier West Swinney Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana? Among other things it had an old wooden roller coaster. Is there a book available with pictures of the park?

Thanks.

Does anyone know of anywhere you can get a used and not necessarily running CB Huntington train? If so, please email site or info to contact them. I'd appreciate it! Thanks.

If anyone wants to visit a "living" old-time amusement park: Go to Pittsburgh in the summertime, and visit Kenneywood

It's a "trolley park," set up to increase ridership way back when but surviving quite nicely. As I recall, it's SE of downtown, on the south bank of the Monongahela.

It's got an amazing selection of roller coasters, including some well-kept old wooden ones, and a real bowel-emptier that plunges over the riverside cliff. Nice picnic areas, too, set up for visiting kids, union groups, etc.

Edited by author 03-19-2002 04:56 PM
When I took the bus to middle school, every day we'd pass by a large, once-garish but now faded sign that read: "It's New! It's Fun! It's SUBURBAN PARK!"

The sign, attached to a large metal archway, opened into an empty field. Today it's still a field, but the sign eventually disappeared.

This could be a great site if more parks were filled in. For all of California, only one park has notes or pictures. *Someone* has to have photos of Pacific Ocean Park (locally known as POP). I mean, the Belushi movie _1941_ reconstructed the park in miniature so that it could destroy it.

"Lagoon" in Utah boasted the largest non-chlorinated pool. I'm sure it was a disease pit.

I remember going to the funhouse late at night, just before closing, climbing the stairs to the carpet slide, and seeing the abandoned mannequins from the old terror ride, draped in old sheets, partially exposed. It always saddens me to see things like that, forsaken illusions.

That night my mom fell asleep at the wheel of our station wagon and drove over a cliff. A telephone pole slowed us down right before we went over, buckling the roof of the car. Nobody was seriously hurt--sagebrush slowed our fall.

That's all.

Three of the north Texas parks mentioned are not exactly defunct.
What they call Lake Worth Park in Fort Worth is actually Casino Beach. It's a dump but still there.

Whitewater in Arlington isn't defunct either. It is now Six Flags Hurricane Harbor.

And the "Dallas Exposition 1936" is Fair Park, Dallas. The State Fair of Texas is held there every October.

Edited by author 03-19-2002 03:36 AM
the park my dad went to as a kid is listed under port arthur, texas. they called it pleasure island though, not pleasure pier. he used to take us to amusement parks and carnivals all the time. one of the best memories of those parks is of riding slowly along the outside track of the funhouse and seeing those double doors swing open to a pitch black interior...realizing i had made a horrible mistake because i was about to be scared silly.

mmmm...tapioca.

Ooooh, I went to one of these . . . Jersey's Pallisades Amusement Park. It must have been the season before it closed.

To say that it was heavily advertised would be an understatement. The pitch and jingle (Come on over!) played all over radio and TV; the placed loomed large in the minds of siblings and relatives and classmates.

All I remember is a spook-alley ride, the immense frustration and not being able to go to half of what I wanted to (a freak show!), and the observation that it was mostly just a bunch of carnival rides dragged together.

Living by the Long Island Sound, I never got the attraction of the World's Largest Salt Water Pool. It was like boasting about an unlimited buffet of chicken livers, pumperknickle bread, and topioca.

And like Coney Island, whose glory days my dad caught the tail end of, it's a bunch of apartment buildings now.