It's a family affair this week as Alan is joined by his cousin Tom Dion to talk about UFC vs boxing, gambling advice, and Tom's years as GM and auditor of various water parks around the country. They talk about how Tom got into the industry, riding slides as "testing", awkwardly auditing water parks for safety, applying for jobs in Tanzania, how a park handles a catastrophic event, and life advice for anyone looking to get into the industry.
The 16th largest and 37th most populous state, Nebraska is another place generally associated with agriculture and little else. Those who have traveled across its vast interior are probably trying to get somewhere that isn't Nebraska, and the reputation of being void of substance has carried almost anywhere I've ever gone. It wasn't always that way: In the early 1900s, the Henry and Robert Jenner created a zoo and amusement park in the small town of Loup City and filled with things they had acquired from travel abroad. There was an egyptian themed building filled with mummies, samurai armor, and of course live animals. Valva Park, now known as Tuxedo Park in Grand Island, offered mechanical rides and vaudeville performances to entertain crowds from all around. Harry King built a substantial full size wood coaster at King's Park in Norfolk which operated during the 20s and 30s, but didn't make it to see the post-war era.
The most famous park to have ever existed in Nebraska is Peony Park of Omaha. It had opened for business in 1919, and while it never had any huge wood coasters or dark rides, it's location in the biggest metro area of the state made it the most recognizable attraction. The park slowly fell victim to poor capital expenditure choices and maintenance issues, as well as the most insidious killer of urban parks: post-segregation racial sentiments. It wound up closing in 1994 as the family members it had been left to pulled the plug on further spending and attention, leaving the state with, at that point, no real amusement park.
Now taking the void it left, Fun Plex isn't much more than a glorified family entertainment center, but it probably has a similar number of attractions to Peony. The coaster here, named "Big Ohhhh!" also happens to be a similar ride to Peony's largest coaster, but is actually a bigger model identical to the rides formerly present at Daytona's Boardwalk Amusements and still at El Paso's Western Playland. North Platte is where one can visit Cody Go Karts, a small fun park with a smattering of small rides, and that pretty much concludes the Nebraska "amusement parks".
And yet, like Kansas to the south, Nebraska has a surprising number of permanent rides at fairgrounds, as well as other unexpectedly big attractions. Nebraska as a whole is surprising when more broadly viewed: the western tail of the state is pockmarked with small glacial lakes and rolling hills. There's mountains and cliffs on that far edge, while there's the mighty Missouri River running along the east border. There's variety here, you just have to drive awhile to find it.
During research to do this piece, 4 counties were identified as having their own county-owned carnivals:
Dundy County Fair: Rides here include a Tip-Top, Kiddie Boats, Eli Wheel, Bumper Cars, old style Simulator attraction, 1942 Herschell Carousel, Tubs of Fun, and Go Carts.
Furnas County Fair: Eli Wheel, Super Slide, Tilt-A-Whirl, and a few other smaller portable style attractions.
Gosper County Fair: a 2009 article lists, "kids' Ferris wheel, electric cars, swings, a carousel, a miniature steam train and an octopus ride."
Saunders County Fair: Their website lists: "Ferris Wheel, the Casino, the Scrambler, a roller coaster, and the Octopus along with a various selection of kiddie rides."
While there a many municipal aquatics facilities, the most worthwhile attraction in the state that's non-profit run/operated is Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. Having received plenty of money from local monster corporation Berkshire-Hathaway, it is one of the nation's best zoos. In addition to the animal exhibits, there's a steam-powered train with a 1.8 mile loop run, skyride, and carousel. For those looking more into the nature side of things, the domed-desert climate is among the world's largest, and also contains the largest nocturnal animal exhibit (Singapore's Night Zoo being exempt from this, as it is an entire separately ticketed zoo). Speaking of trains, there's a Chance CP Huntington in use at Stolley State Park in Grand Island.
Of all the state funded projects to cost a lot and aspire for much, few went as far as the Great Platte River Road Archway, often simply called "The Archway." Towering over I-80 in the town of Kearney, it has been rumored to have been built on contract with the Walt Disney Imagineering, though no specific names seem to be tied to the project. It's an audio/visual tour of the history of this part of the great American west that's been done with impressive detail, but most don't know precisely what the gigantic structure above the freeway actually is.
Montana's place in amusement park history is primarily in the past. With no presently operating roller coasters permanently housed in the state, it is generally considered a "dead zone" for most enthusiasts traveling through the Mountain West seeking rides before the appreciable natural beauty of its vast wild spaces, giant peaks, and fly fishing streams. Since it has been without real amusement rides for so long, there's also little collected knowledge available. We here are Parkscope like to clear up some of these mysteries, and Montana will be little different.
(Lake Avoca)
Prior to the Depression, two amusement parks came and went. Butte's Lake Avoca was home to "Lake Amusement Park," and Great Falls had Riverview. Neither park has much material to look at now: a poster was uncovered from Riverview and sold at auction in 2013, while Lake Amusement Park has but a single postcard online of the bath house. A third park, Columbia Gardens, had much more success. It had opened in 1896, and became the dominant place of amusement in Butte for nearly a century. It would be "joined" by Leon Park in Miles City in the 1930s. I put joined in quote marks because there's not much evidence of actual amusement rides at Leon Amusement Park; a pool and dance hall sure, but not really so much rides. According to a geneology.com article that is virtually all the known internet history of it's operation, Leon Park was sold in the 1950s and burned down mysteriously in 1968. People from the area recall the remains of the dance hall standing for many years afterward, though a search now clearly indicates that it is all gone.
Columbia Gardens, however, stuck it out until 1973. The mineral resources the park sat on top of made it worth more to the company that owned it than the park, and thus it was shut down for a strip mining operation. Home to a wood coaster, classic carousel, flat rides, and a dance pavilion, the park was being investigated for a move when it caught fire in November 1973. With that fire, any hope for a future Montanan amusement park effectively became lost. Today, the Spirit of Columbia Gardens Carousel is a privately-funded effort to try and recreate the lost carousel of the park and establish it on a new space inside Butte's Stodden Park. Things are progressing, and with luck, they'll be done by the end of 2017's summer.
In the present day, the closest thing to a proper amusement park in the state of Montana comes in the form of places that are primarily water parks. Big Sky Waterpark in Columbia Falls, MT has a classic carousel and cheap bumper cars slapped into a water park to give the state it's largest overall center of amusements. Woodland Water Park in Kalispell, Splash Mountain in Missoula, Electric City in Great Falls, and Last Chance Splash in Helena round out the traditional "outdoor" community water park offerings. There is also The Reef, a not entirely gigantic indoor facility in Billings that's part of Big Horn Resort. As of now, there are no alpine coasters at the ski resorts of Montana, but there are alpine slides at Whitefish Mountain Resort, which are arguably more fun and decidedly more dangerous.
With a state income tax under 7%, and no sales tax, Montana is certainly "business friendly," but also generally lacks services at the state and county level. Unlike many states where the existence of amusements may, at the local level, be subsidized or paid for outright from local budgets, Montana has precious few such things and they are all funded via private money. Many which were built with federal funds were converted in time when expenses became high: The Great Falls Civic Center, for example, had its ice rink converted into convention center space in the 1980s. The Great Northern Carousel and "A Carousel for Missoula" have come together in the 2000s as ventures of local business people and community leaders to have something for kids to do outside of hunting, fishing, and methamphetamine use. A rare exception to this is the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, which is home to a carousel used only during the fair and a mini golf course available throughout the entire summer.
While there are precious few roller coasters and no small trains, there are water slides, carousels, and museums. The Western Heritage Center intends to communicate the story of those frontiersmen who ventured into the Great Plains to find something - anything - to call their own. Deeper into the mountains, one stumbles across the likes of Old Fort Benton, as well as Big Horn County Historical Museum and Visitor Center in Hardin. These may be without rides, but feature period buildings and costumes in an attempt to better get you, the guest, to grasp what life was like in turn of the century Montana.
There are some roadside attractions worth mentioning as well. The Montana Vortex is a classic gravity house style attraction that has gone the extra mile to invoke "energy vortexes" and "Sedona" because people who think they can draw power from crystals worn around their neck are generally total imbeciles capable of falling for anything. Amusement Park Drive-In in Billings physically has rides, but they were badly damaged in a flood and didn't open for 2015. The rides still appear on Google Maps, but there are no references to them on their Facebook or Twitter accounts.
This episode Lane briefly joins us from the SunTrust Park to lay out his plan to fix all of WDW for less money than it took to build Pandora, Joe talks about his Cedar Point trip, Sean talks about visiting the Harry Potter Studio Tour in England, and Nick cuts in and out of connectivity. We also discuss Pandora previews, Volcano Bay media day, locals overhyping projects, The Shining and Conjuring at HHN, new hotels, Sesame Street, and then answer your non-theme park questions!
Few states can manage to embody so many of the contrasts of the American Midwest in the way that Missouri can. Geographically, it's larger than New York or Florida. There are the plains and wetlands of both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. There's vast rolling farmland, as well as forests, mountains, and enormous lakes (many of which are man made). Around the rural beauty is also the unfortunate backstory of Missouri's slave state status and continuing racial turmoil in its urban areas. For outsiders, Missouri is a place anchored by two cities on opposite corners - Kansas City and St. Louis. Both cities have a pall of decay and despair about them with the ever changing global economy increasingly leaving them behind. Outside of those metropolitan strongholds are the capital (Jefferson City), college towns (Columbia, Rolla, Cape Giradeau), and a major resort destination (The Ozarks, anchored by Branson).
As always with the series, we start with that which is known:
-Six Flags St. Louis opened as the third of the original Six Flags parks under the moniker "Six Flags Mid-America". The name was changed during the Gary Story years after the chain expanded and took on new facilities in Chicago, Louisville, and Cleveland, but the name has stuck even since. Unlike Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Over Georgia, which saw ownership stakes retained by the Wynne family, Six Flags Over Georgia is a wholly owned by Six Flags Inc. facility and thus requires a certain amount of cultural anthropology to see much of what was original to the park remaining as it has crumbled away over time. Highlights of the current lineup include the John Allen out-and-back Screamin' Eagle, the GCI wood coaster American Thunder, the launched Premier coaster Mr. Freeze, an Arrow log flume, a train ride, (Six Flags Mid America logos still in cast iron), and a Sally Justice League dark ride.
-Worlds of Fun was, I hear, a really cool looking regional themer in the late 90s before Dick Kinzel and Cedar Fair went about tearing all the charm out of it in stages. The park that exists now has a GCI woodie that is generally well regarded (Prowler), a Morgan hypercoaster that is generally well regarded, and a train ride that actually went back to having staged robberies of late. The raft ride (Fury of the Nile) might actually be a top 3 attraction at this park which lacks really solid show facilities or a dark ride.
-Silver Dollar City is where the Herschend empire got started. Aesthetically similar to Dollywood, it has a number of really awesome aspects that Dollywood just can't match now: The Flooded Mine boat dark ride, the Grandfather's Mansion fun house, the fact that the first attraction here was a real life cave big enough to fit hot air balloons into, a top mine train coaster, a great custom S&S launched ride in Powder Keg, and oh so much more. SDC is one of my favorite parks in the world, no doubt about it.
-The St. Louis Arch and Museum of Westward Expansion are visited by several million people each year, and in addition to the one of a kind elevator system, the underground museum features an array of animatronic figures detailing the colonization of the Wild West.
...and from there, we go to that which is unknown....
BEYOND THE GATEWAY
St. Louis is home to the state's largest metro population, and it shouldn't surprise people that it also has some of the more interesting attractions I'll be noting. The first of these is a modern creation: The City Museum. Not merely just a museum, but a sort of "fun house on steroids", City Museum was the brain child of Bob Cassilly, an artist who realized the potential in an abandoned shoe factory to create an interactive art installation unlike any other. Like other fun houses in the world, there barrels to roll in and slides to go down, but this "fun house" also has an array of interconnected tunnels, miniatures, pinball machines, a safe, opera posters, an airplane, and more jungle gym-esque equipment to climb on than can reasonably be imagined. When this series is over and done with, City Museum will be near the top of the list of awesome things to see.
St. Louis has other above average sights to see as well. The St. Louis Zoo is a free admission zoo (rare) which occupies part of the grounds of the 1904 World's Fair held here. A 4-D theater and Chance CP Huntington Train offer non-animal attractions. Union Station will soon be home to an aquarium and Chance 200-foot ferris wheel in addition to the impressive projection show already taking place in the main hall. Staying in the area and closer to Six Flags is the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, another AZA accredited institution.
Finally, we head to a county park to get a look back into living history. Faust Park in Chesterfield has two carousels; one an 1898 Armitage-Herschell, the other a 1921 Dentzel. The older of the two was converted to electric operation from steam, but the engine has been retained as a museum piece.
WALK IN WALT'S FOOTSTEPS
Walt Disney is probably the most iconic and important figures in the theme park industry, and much of what made Walt who he was occurred in Missouri. He grew up in the town of Marceline and later in Kansas City, where he established his first animation studio before moving to LA. As such, for the ardent Disney fan, Missouri offers an interesting glimpse unto better understanding Walt Disney: The Man.
Starting in Marceline, The Walt Disney Hometown Museum features a number of artifacts related to the man, his animation, and even the parks. In 1966, the Midget Autopia ride was donated to the city of Marceline along with an ampitheater, and though a spirited attempt to bring the ride back via Kickstarter was made in 2015, the effort fell short. In February 2016, the Marceline City Council voted to demolish the ampitheater and track where the Midget Autopia cars once ran. An Arrow Arrowflite Freeway Ride, Idlewild Park in Pennsylvania still operates a ride nearly identical to Midget Autopia to this day. Knoebel's Grove also operates what is likely a Arrowflite Freeway. As for the town itself, remember that this was the model for Main Street USA, Walt's tribute to small town America.
Over in Kansas City, the primary amusement park of Walt's childhood had closed by the mid-1920s. However, what does certainly still exist is Country Club Plaza. Opened in 1923, this was the first shopping mall/mixed use facility intended to be accessed primarily by automobile. It also appears on this list because the building exteriors have been heavily themed to resemble the Moorish architecture of Seville, Spain. This is also one of the early adopters of that now famous theme park tradition of garish Christmas lighting arrays and accompanying lighting ceremonies. While it's opening would have been significant, and the eventual effect of its innovations seemingly influential to an almost obvious degree, Country Club Plaza is not often mentioned in relation to Walt's development.
Kansas City also has another big mixed use development of note in what is known as Crown Center. Merlin operates both a Sea Life Aquarium and Legoland Discovery Center in the shopping complex. "Crown" is for the Hallmark logo, as this is abutting corporate headquarters and the Hallmark Visitor Center. Architecture and disaster buffs might also note that the Sheraton Crown Plaza here opened as the Hyatt Regency, and was the scene of a horrific disaster in 1981 where 114 people were crushed to death in an atrium walkway collapse.
FLANDERS' VERSION OF LAS VEGAS
Branson is not a boom town. The best days for this city were in the mid 90s, when musicians and entertainers from around the globe packed enormous theaters filled with Middle American tourists seeking escape. As the demographic who made Branson what it is died off, and was replaced with lower income people with less interest in bluegrass music or comedy bits about Soviet Russia, hotels stopped getting filled. Branson USA, a new build park in the 1990s, was purchased by Herschend to effectively close it (they left it standing and abandoned in clear view for many years) and cut competition. Theaters are empty with grass poking through the parking lots. Meanwhile, Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg has boomed, suggesting that there is only room for one such tourist draw.
In lieu of all this, two mountain coasters will be operating in Branson in 2017. The first, at Branson Mountain Adventure Park, actually opened last year. The second, currently under construction, replaces the Cool Off Water Chute, an early concrete water slide that predated Wet N' Wild and River Country. They join a bevy of existing attractions, such as the Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf location and its train ride to the first hole and the Hollywood Wax Museum. The latter even has the throw-ins of the "5D" Castle of Chaos interactive theater attraction and Shoot for The Stars Mini-Golf (which may actually be slightly racist in its depiction of your manager, whom offers encouragement at each hole while describing your ascent in Hollywood).
Herschend operates White Water, a fairly compact water park near the main drag in town, and that competes primarily with a couple of indoor water parks as well as Big Surf (no relation to the Arizona park). With Cool Off Water Chute being dead, the most unique slide to the state is gone with it.
UNCHARTED MISSOURI
Outside the major cities, few bother to roam. I can't say I really blame them. But those who have came back with information about some weird parks. Bless them and their spending of money.
Hydro Adventures in Poplar Bluff isn't really near anything you'd go to, but since opening in 2003 has slowly obtained an audience. Since 2015, the dry ride options were added, and it is now home to the largest coaster in the state (an SDC built Galaxi) outside the big chain owned themers. There's a mix of cheaper Italian and American built rides otherwise. In the city of Osage Beach, halfway between Columbia and Springfield, is Miner Mike's Adventure Town. It is a classic, but large, family entertainment center. The rustic frontier theme is above average for the genre, but being honest, its primary function is children's birthday parties.
St. Joseph's is home to the Patee House, a museum complex that features a truly one-of-a-kind ride. The "Wild Thing" carousel, carved entirely by Bruce White, was taken in from the local mall. White is actually the guy responsible for the horses Applebee's restaurants use as flair/decor in the restaurants. That's not the only strange carousel in the state either. Perryville, a town located southeast of St. Louis, has a Herschell-Spillman carousel dating to 1905 which operates only for the 3 day run of the Annual Seminary Picnic the first weekend of August.
Universal Orlando has updated their Wet n Wild development plan with the City of Orlando to include new details and concept renderings of the proposed hotels. The Orlando Business Journal and Orlando Sentinel published the updates.
Copyright Universal Orlando Resort
Universal says the resorts "will be branded/themed to complement existing on-site Universal hotels, and will feature resort-style landscaping, resort amenities including retail and food and beverage outlets, resort-style pools and other resort features in keeping with the brands for each respective property." 1,200 rooms will sit on the former Wet n Wild plot with an additional 2,800 rooms sitting on the former water parks' parking lot.
Copyright Universal Orlando Resort
The theme of the 1,200 room resort appears to be surf or boardwalk themed while the 2,800 room resort's theme is more ambiguous.
Alan is joined by Tom Mehrmann, owner and founder of Themed Advisers Ltd. They discuss Tom's past as VP of Operations and Entertainment at Knotts Berry Farm, VP and GM of several Six Flags parks around the world, his twelve years as CEO of Ocean Park in Hong Kong, Tom's philosophy on running amusement parks, the future of the Asian amusement park industry, and more!
