Describing Indiana to someone who's existence is entirely that of Coastal Acceptable America can be a challenge. Often the discussions focus on the negatives: the capital is nicknamed "Naptown" because it is seen as being "sleepy" except for one, slowly degrading event a year. Terre Haute smells like farts. IU and Purdue Football. The roads, especially the Turnpike, suck. Endless farmland. Gary, Indiana. AIDS breakouts. The Meth Capital of America. The Klan and all the ugly after effects of racism in the state that continue to this day. Dragging Indiana is easy to do: People from every surrounding state have been doing it for years.
But there's a lot that isn't bad. Indiana Basketball. The National Park operated beaches of Indiana Dunes. The classic resorts of French Lick, now freshly renovated and sparkling like they haven't in decades. Indy is a city with a real distinct urban core, a lack of intermittent surface parking lots, and a really nice river that runs through the place. Facilities second to none for athletics that have made this a go-to for amateur competitions. The state parks here are some of the best in the nation, and there's some solid zoos too.Tons of awesome turn of the 20th century architecture everywhere you go.
For theme park fans, there are generally two parks which everyone has already heard of: Holiday World and Indiana Beach. Both have undergone all sorts of dysfunction with ownership in recent years. For Holiday World, the death of scion Will Koch led to a legal battle that left the park with his wife and kids rather than his mother and siblings, whom have since moved south to take over Alabama Adventure. Indiana Beach's ownership passed to the kids of their elderly father, who promptly sold the park to the first slick sounding bidder that entered the scene; Morgan RV. Run by Robert Moser, the park was nearly run into ruin in one of the most vicious burns in recent memory before being sold off to a new firm, Apex Parks in late 2015.
The 90s and 2000s were hard on Indiana's amusement parks, and 5 facilities ended up closing down forever over that stretch. Old Indiana Fun Park was among the most substantive to fail, collapsing in 1997 after the negligent death of a guest killed by a derailing park train the year prior. The facility was bought by Six Flags and became famed as a national boneyard for removed coasters from parks like Riverside (now Six Flags New England) and Opryland. All of those attractions were scrapped in 2006. Columbian Park in Lafayette was a municipal park with dry rides (including a dark ride) that met its demise in the mid 90s. Enchanted Forest in Porter and Sauzer's Kiddieland in Schererville, IN weren't big, but did offer reasonably priced recreation before both fell to bankruptcy. Enchanted Forest, at least, is now a site where a water park operates. And finally, there's Fun Spot in Angola. It bit the dust after the 2008 season when the recession killed many local businesses who did group outings, and most of its rides have since been dispersed.
History, however, still lives in many other parts of the state. The Cass County Carousel in Logansport is an excellent diversion and features a rare ring machine for outside riders to enjoy. A 1906 Denzel Carousel can also be found in the town of Shipshewana. In many ways, Shipshewana is a classic "themed attraction" across the board. It isn't really known outside the midwest, but within that space, it is a very notable resort town featuring large hotels and shopping/entertainment which is primarily centered around the substantial Amish/Mennonite population here. The Menno-Hof Museum is a good starting point for this and features all sorts of multimedia exhibits and theme rooms to draw people into a better understanding of how these groups came to be and populate the Americas.
For those seeking other forms of escapism to ages past, there are a few options throughout the state. Laporte County Fairgrounds is home to Pioneerland, which features people in historic clothing showing off how life was in the first half of the 19th century. This is generally only open during the fair, but you might be able to glom onto a school group in May or September. In Rockport, Indiana, the fairgrounds there abuts the Lincoln Pioneer Village and Museum, showing some of the early hangouts for America's most beloved president. This is open daily, though apparently turns up during the Freedom Festival each July. The Enchanted Lakes Renaissance Faire in Angola almost made this list, but wound up disbanding after 2016.
Another part of Indiana's history that has struggled along and continues to exist is the Peru Amateur Circus. At one time decades ago, the small town of Peru was to the circus industry what Gibsonton was to carnivals, playing host to winter quarters of the likes of Hagenbeck-Wallace, Ringling Bros, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. A museum is the only remaining year-round vestige of this history, but the circus itself runs in an arena specially operational solely for it for one week each July.
Zoos, as have been shown in this series, often feature amusement attractions. Indiana's are particularly notable. Indianapolis Zoo has a small Zierer roller coaster - that in and of itself is notable. But even more impressive is the Skyline attraction. Operating on the same premise that a skyride might, it instead has individual cabins running under tubular steel track with a third rail powering. This is the first such ride built by Chance Manufacturing. Not to be outdone, Fort Wayne Children's Zoo has what appear to be both Hopkins built attractions with their own traditional cable skyride and a flume ride through the Australian section of the zoo.
AND EVERYTHING ELSE:
Like Illinois, there's some pumpkin farming going on in Indiana. With it come farms looking to provide entertainment to kids, and Harvest Tyme Pumpkin Patch brings a bunch of kiddie rides to entertain the youngsters. Looking for something more complex? Then venture over to Fair Oaks Farms halfway between Gary and Lafayette. There's some really big tours of their dairy and pig facilities, 4D movies, kids rides, and more.
Indiana Live Steamers in Johnson County, IN operates public rides every third Saturday in May, June, July, and October, along with longer hours during the Heartnut Festival in September.
There's a number of haunt attractions during the month of October: among the largest is the Indy Scream Park (haunts + midway, games, et al.). A larger list can be seen on this site.
Volcano Bay water "theme" park will have it's grand opening May 25th after three days of media previews and events. We've known the park will open no later than June 1st for some time now, but Universal now confirms the first official date of operation.
Scaffolding clearing from the drop slide boarding level of Krakatau at Volcano Bay. pic.twitter.com/PEuiptKS19
Lots of work still remains to finish the park, including the wave pool, lazy river, completing the volcano, laying pavement, and installing scenery and landscaping. But recently some of the slides have started testing the water pumps.
Universal has confirmed that Team Members will have a preview period for the new park and it is likely soft openings will occur prior to the grand opening.
Joe is joined by Alan to talk about amusement parks, roller coasters around the world, The European Coaster Club, beers, and other random discussions on the meaning of life.
Tonight as we were all watching the Nintendo Switch reveal Jimmy Fallon jumps out and goes "HEY MY RIDE IS OPENING APRIL 6TH!" He then laughs at his own joke.
One of America's most populated states and home to one of the three most important cultural hubs (Chicago), Illinois is a big deal to everyone who doesn't border an ocean and even some of those people too. In pure population of the city itself, Chicago is home to a million more people than LA and is larger than any Canadian city other than Toronto. Beyond Greater Chicago, there are vast agricultural spaces, traces of Route 66 (which starts in downtown Chicago and runs southwest to St. Louis), half the Quad Cities, the capital of Springfield, and a number of small cities not heavily known outside the midwest.
THE KNOWN:
-Six Flags Great America is one of the two Marriott's Great America parks that opened for the Bicentennial and was divested of in the early 80s. As is often the case, most of the coolest attractions the park ever had haven't run in years, though it does have some cool old theming pieces and a few really solid coasters.
-Schaumburg is home to a Legoland Discovery Center location, complete with a Kingdom Quest trackless dark ride.
-Navy Pier has a new ferris wheel (the old one is in Branson, MO now), wave swinger, carousel, and kiddie drop tower. Joining it in downtown are some very theme park-esque exhibits at the amazing downtown museums. The Museum of Science and Industry is home to The Coal Mine, which takes riders on a mine train ride using authentic equipment. There's also the multimedia heavy U-505 exhibit, which is incredibly huge and all indoors. Over at Adler Planetarium, you can line up to take a short ride into a giant metal ball which will imitate the night sky over Chicago.
CHICAGO: UNDERCOVER
The first place I ever moved out of my Mom's to was a friend's floor in Midlothian in the South Chicago 'burbs. I never found a job to get me by before Cedar Point opened for the '03 season and started employing me, so I wound up having a lot of time to drive around. I had brief tastes of the vast horizon bending fields prior, but I really dove in and went just about everywhere I could while I waited for my phone to ring with a crappy service job offer. Since moving to Michigan 8 years ago, I've been back many times, but many things I recall from the not all that distant past are long since gone. Kiddieland in Melrose Park is now a Costco, and so is Hillcrest in Lemont. House of Kicks on 95th lasted only a couple of years before coming down. There were a ton of indoor kiddie parks under the Dinorex name, and they're all gone or renamed too. Long before I arrived, there was a whole large scale indoor theme park called Old Chicago: you can still ride the Arrow Corkscrew at Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire, but the building that went with it is long gone and now an auto auction lot.
Still, the weather up in the Windy City is such that indoor facilities are always going to be popular ideas to operate. Safari Land in Villa Park is the largest other than the Legoland Discovery Center, and features a decent size roller coaster, electric go karts (though these may be getting removed for a new attraction right now), Tilt-A-Whirl, and bumper cars in addition to arcade games and ticket redemption. The Brunswick Zone bowling alley in Naperville has some kiddie rides, and the Romeoville location features bumper cars. If you just want to eat, Schaumberg also has a Medieval Times Dinner theater.
Away from the Windy City, Illinois is still pretty darn cold in winter, and destination retail seems to be a place where rides and attractions of this sort can flourish. Scheels', an outdoors store in Springfield, has an Eli Wheel and race car simulators. Bass Pro Shops are pretty legendary in how over-the-top their decor is, and their East Peoria location often breaks out a carousel for usage at special events.
OLD TIME FAMILY ATTRACTIONS
Santa's Village was a place that very nearly joined the list of defunct parks. It opened back in 1959 during a time of great kiddie park expansion and ran continuously for nearly 50 years. In 2005, the gates shuttered for the last time. The owners had invested poorly in new attractions and were out of money, and it stayed closed until 2011. Divesting of many rides, the park was pretty much counted out until new owners took over and reopened it. There's been somewhat of a revolving door the first few years with many used rides being brought in and replaced, but 2017 seems to be the first year where entirely new attractions will start to populate the park in place of what were piecemeal initial additions. While rides like the ARM drop tower and Interpark Zyklon aren't entirely unique, there are some attractions left from the previous incarnation of the park. The SFVD Engine No. 3 attraction is pretty much a Santa's Village original; picture a sideways facing hayride but with water cannons and you put out fires. Different, no?
While the future of Santa's Village seems relatively safe, Donley's Wild West Town is not nearly as being on firm footing. Currently for sale in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, the owners (the Donley family, duh) are just straight up old. The patriarch is 87, and he's at the point where day to day operation of even a small amusement park is getting much for him. There are offers, so I hear, and it seems like operations will continue into 2017. But it may be wise to look into visiting sooner rather than later to get a feel for it. It is a love affair for the couple who own it and effectively built it from scratch to primarily display their collection of Western artifacts.
VAST FIELDS OF GOURDS
In 2015, the USDA recorded that the state of Illinois was the state in the union that produced the largest number of pumpkins. So great was the differential between Illinois and the rest of the field that nearly 318 million pounds of pumpkins produced in the state was a sum greater than #2-4 combined. Harvest time in Illinois is a very big deal, and this has led a number of pumpkin growers to expand their options beyond merely picking one's own future Jack O' Lantern and becoming fall time fun zones.
First on our list is Richardson Adventure Farm, which claims to have the largest corn maze in the world. Ramp based zorbing and ziplines are available here too. Stade’s Farm and Market in Harvard, IL is home to Stade’s Farmtractions Theme Park. There are fairly traditional amusement rides at this agro-tourism park such as a ferris wheel (with barn motif), small carousel, and kiddie whip, but also many fairly homebuilt attractions such as pneumatic apple cannons to fire, a mirror maze built from old animal transporters, or a pedal cart dirt track. Not to easily be outdone are the two Goebbert's Farms in South Barrington and Hampshire feature their own wild homebuilt stuff. South Barrington features all sorts of animal attractions and "mining" for light excitement, and more sturdy entertainment in the form of an Haunted House walk-through attraction and a strange robotic pumpkin eating dinosaur.
Goebbert's Hampshire location has dry slides, a haunted house and "pumpkin eating dinosaur" of their own, and more importantly, a train ride. The midwest seems to be a hub for railfans, and it should come as little surprise that rural Illinois farmer types love their trains. Larger scale, ride-able trains can also be found at Kuipers Family Farm in Maple Park (also home to Farmer Jed’s Haunted Shed) and Royal Oak Farm in Harvard (there's a carousel there too).
All of these things are family operations, and one hypothesis I have going these days is that we're seeing fewer and fewer people willing to take these risks on their own and receiving little or no credit for having done so. Walt's Dream has been dragged out a million times, but Walt was also a man with a burgeoning media empire and billionaire friends whom he could lean on to provide corporate advertising. The lack of fresh blood means we're relying on increasingly older people, and the risks inherent with that. Take for example Dollinger Family Farm in Channahon, home to a narrow gauge tourist railway (The P&J) run by Jerry Stinebring. Jerry's wife Paula, the P of the operation, passed in 2012. The two had run the railway together since retiring from Caterpillar, and it is now entirely reliant on his own expertise and love of steam powered rail. He owns one steam train built by Crown (same manufacturer as the two Busch Gardens, Hersheypark, and Kings Island trains) as well as a gas powered one of his own design. Who will follow him? Is there someone who can? For those solely concerned with gigantic 9 figure dark rides, this isn't a concern. But it should be as it is a greater societal loss; we are losing people who had imagination and desire, and replacing them with, what, people who make Youtube videos playing Dreamcast games?
RIDING THE NARROW RAILS
There's actually several train based attractions in Illinois which stand alone. The Prarie State Railroad Club in Big Rock run their trains for the public occasionally in Plowman's Park. Illinois Live Steamers are a similar situation, except they collectively purchased a 7.5 acre plot to run their equipment on. The Deerfield and Roundabout Railroad of Lake Forest has a website filled with historical info to go along with their infrequent steam train rides.
WHAT'S AN FEC AGAIN?
Many times over in this series, I've used the term "Family Entertainment Center". Shortened to FEC, this term encompasses a somewhat wide variety of indoor and outdoor facilities. Generally speaking, FECs range from small amusement parks/water parks to theme restaurants not unlike Chuck E. Cheese. The general linking thing between all of these is a business model that promotes constant guest spend for individual activities over a pay-one-price model. What do I mean by that? FECs are heavy on upcharge experiences: bumper boats, mini golf, go karts, Eurobungy. They are heavy on arcade games and specifically ticket redemption. They may have rides. They may even have fairly big rides. But they aren't really competing for large scale group sales, but rather things like children's birthday parties or team building exercises via laser tag. They merge all of these individual things under one umbrella and then sell it. That's an FEC.
Illinois does not have a single pre-WW2 traditional amusement park remaining in the state since Kiddieland closed, and if you're looking for remnants of anything, you'll be touring the grounds of UIC (built around the Midway Plaisance from the 1893 Columbian Exposition). HauntedTrails/Enchanted Castle's three locations within the Chicagoland area are probably the most well known such places, featuring a mix of rides (including kiddie coasters at the Haunted Trails spots), mini golf, batting cages, and arcade games, all anchored by party rooms where overpriced pizza can be consumed. Less diverse is Par-King, possibly America's finest mini golf facility. The holes feature tons of automated action and huge obstacles and are immaculately maintained. Unlike almost any other course I can think of, there's staff that hands out golf clubs, directs individuals to particular courses and take time to try and space out players to prevent them from running into one another. Homemade? Sure. But phenomenal nonetheless, and not all that far away from Chicago's legendary Superdawg drive-in either.
For something remarkably weird, one must head to the town of Metamora, located just a short distance from Peoria. Didley's Place is a restaurant first, an outdoor movie theater second, and a family entertainment center third. With the exception of the diesel miniature train, everything here is pretty much homemade. The ferris wheel almost seems to be using kiddie Zipper cars or something. The carousel is basically folk art of the folkiest sort.
PUBLIC ATTRACTIONS
Illinois, like many places, has all sorts of community operated rides. There's a vendor operated Giant Slide and skyride at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and a train ride at the Sandwich Fair. Pittsfield, IL's Lions Club has a small carnival that they operate during fairs in town, and Waterman's Lions Park is home to the regularly operating Waterman and Western Miniature Railroad. Jacksonville, IL's Rotary Club operates a Eli Wheel at a community park. Chicago suburb Elk Grove features a kiddie park called Pirates Cove, and Freeport has operated a carousel at Krape Park since 1959. There's even a state park with a train ride: the Wildlife Prairie State Park has a 40 minute train ride on the Prairie Zephyr. Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, and Scovill Zoo in Decatur all operate carousels in addition to their animal exhibits.
THE HOPE DIAMOND OF ITS GENRE
Jasper Sanfilippo is a multi-multi-millionaire you've likely not heard the name of. His father's company is the parent of Fisher Nuts, and he himself was CEO for quite awhile. Jasper and his wife Marian have a keen interest in automation, and I don't mean industrial/manufacturing types. I mean automatic music machines, steam engines and things of that nature. His collection, located in his private estate in Barrington, IL, is home to a ride that is nothing short of spectacular. There are only 4 remaining Salon Carousels in the world, and this is the lone one in North America (the two most well known are at Europa and Efteling in Europe). Eden Palais is considered the most complete and original of them still in operation, but is only able to be visited on occasions where the home is doing tours (minimum group of 40) or open for charitable events.
Salon Carousels different from more traditional merry-go-rounds in two distinct ways: first, the "salon," or room. They had large structures specifically intended to cover and surround the carousel, almost all of which were done up in audacious amounts of gold leaf and crystal. The other is the way the carousels typically moved. They were almost all steam powered, and rather than use the jumping mechanisms we know on most carousels, movement is entirely generated in the base. Salon Carousels were, for the late 19th century, often anchors for European midways. This is the best one you can find.
Joe and Nick stretch one out in the new year and talk Avatar, Star Wars Galactic Nights, booze, Potter nighttime show rumors, Volcano Bay updates, and then close it out with Lane calling in to talk about his recent trip for the WDW Marathon.
According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, the world's leading trade organization for the theme park industry, 934 million people attend/experience amusement attractions annually. While likely inflated, even a more conservative reading would likely place 1/10 of all living people in the world as visiting an amusement facility annually. Considering that the world's middle class is rated at 1.8 billion people, anywhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of that number experience the amusement industry. These numbers are generated from a constellation of various types of attractions. Not only traditional amusement parks and modern theme park facilities are counted, but family entertainment centers (FECs) based around direct revenue model attractions such as mini golf and go karts, arcades, open air museums, and aquatics facilities (water parks).
As with any recreational activity, fandom has grown around it and allowed for individuals to identify with communities built around their preferred activity. While no specific estimates of their numbers exist, divisions of "casual" and "hardcore" fans play out in the space of theme parks just as they do other artistic mediums or with sports. A cavalcade of enthusiast and brand based communities began to spring up in the 1970s as the amusement industry took off during a great period of American expansion. Later, the advent of the Internet and social media ages have caused these communities to multiply in direction, philosophy, and scope.
This piece intends to briefly examine the relationship of hardcore (diffused) American and Canadian "theme park fans" to the industry which they identify with as consumers. Most importantly, I intend to explore of the perceived and real dichotomies contained within. In doing so, it is hoped to create a clearer picture of the overall nature of theme park fandom, and to open discourse in other aspects of how and why people are motivated to expand to varying degrees of obsession when it comes to the amusement and themed attractions industry. The format of the piece is not traditionally linear. The purpose for this relates to the authorial intent of the individual producing it; by describing the theme park fandom world as it is seen by its largest group and then expanding it outside their traditionally held boundaries, it is hoped to show the true multivariate nature of hobbyists.
As no academic literature has been produced specific to brand and enthusiast communities to theme parks (only general attendance), and only industry studies of overall customer base have been generated, the piece has been titled as a hypothesis. A loose basic framework for testing the hypothesis will be suggested.
