Santa's Land - Cherokee, NC

I cannot believe it has been almost a year since I wrote a blog post. I hope to post more regularly next year, but for now, here's a look at a small Christmas-themed park in the Great Smoky Mountains called Santa's Land. I had the chance to visit this quaint park this past July.

Santa's Land opened in 1966, and it feels like a time capsule from the golden age of roadside attractions. Cherokee, North Carolina and neighboring Maggie Valley are both tourist towns that have declined in popularity since the 60s, so Santa's Land is a relic from a past era of tourism in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Unfortunately, the carousel was closed for the day, but the park made sure you were aware of this fact before purchasing a ticket!

The park is encircled by a miniature train, with a large zoo taking up one end of the park alongside quaint storybook buildings and tableaux. The other end of the park is home to Fun Land, which houses a small collection of rides.

The rides include classic Allan Herschell helicopters and boats as well as an "umbrella" ride built by a Belgian manufacturer. It still has a trailer hitch attached to the platform, yet it has probably not been on the road in at least 50 years.

Another classic kiddie ride is the Midge-O-Racer, built by Eyerly Aircraft. The park owner explained to me that each of the numbers has significance to him personally, whether they sport his high school football number or represent the park's fiftieth anniversary.

The park's roller coaster is the Rudicoaster, built in 1989. On your approach to the park, there are billboards urging you to "ride the Rudicoaster" for miles!

The park contains several animated displays built in the early 1960s by New York City department store window artist David Hamburger. They have been maintained remarkably well, though the song sung by the elves is a little unsettling (not in a bad way).

This display used to be creepier, as it was lit entirely in blacklight. This elf also used to hold a meat cleaver and would slice the ham sitting next to him. Other displays include a family of deer and penguins.

The park has several buildings formerly used to house craft demosntrations, including a grist mill and broom maker.

Unfortunately, there were no broom-making demonstrations on the day we visited.

Despite the age of the park, the buildings and rides all looked fresh.

The Allan Herschell boat ride used to be commonplace at parks, but many have been removed over time.

The park's tallest ride is this "Big Eli" Ferris Wheel, named after its manufacturer, the Eli Bridge Company. You board your car after ascending this Astroturf-covered platform.

The most impressive fact about this Ferris wheel is that it formerly operated at the legendary Palisades Park in New Jersey before that park closed in 1971. It still offers a smooth glide over the treetops.

No real roadside attraction in the South is complete without a moonshine still. If you ask how this is related to Christmas, stop asking silly questions.

Another animated tableau is Scrooge and the Ghost of Marley. The ghost slightly moves his hands, but there is no soundtrack, making this another slightly disconcerting display.

Tucked in the back of the park is a snow cone stand and a small lake, which is home to paddle boats. Monkeys inhabit two islands in the middle of the lake, and there are lots of koi fish in the water itself.

The polka dot boat is slightly off-balance, but I'm sure they'll be okay!

It is slightly surreal to be outside in 80 degree weather in the summer with instrumental Christmas music playing over the park's crackly old PA system. The music is only interrupted by the bell of Santa's Express, which constantly rings as the train makes its rounds.

I love hand-painted signage, and the park's chapel has a great sign.

Nearby the chapel sits this nativity scene across the stream.

One of the park's main attractions remains the chance to meet Santa, and he can be found in this brightly-colored building.

After you enter the park, you are greeted by two large fiberglass statues, including this snowman.

There is also this towering, slightly sinister Easter bunny, who has been a park fixture since 1970.

Here's another piece of signage that feels like you're stepping back in time.

The park's theater hosts a magic show every few hours, and a small magic shop sits nearby.

It is important to mention that Santa's Land has a large array of animals, including deer, black bears, peacocks, and camels. The park has been criticized for its small enclosures that are typical of roadside zoos.

The park's train cuts right through the walkway, with nothing to stop guests from getting in its way.

As you exit through the gift shop, you experience another time capsule. Amongst other retro souvenirs, you'll see old GAF "Pana-Vue" travel slides in the upper right. Given that GAF shut down its photo division in 1977, these slides have doubtlessly been sitting here for a long time. I had to purchase a set, though they have turned very red over time. The back says you can send 25 cents for your Pana-Vue Slide Catalog and a free slide by writing to a PO Box in Portland. I might have to try that.

I hope you enjoyed this trip to Santa's Land in Cherokee, North Carolina! Have a great Christmas.

Volo Auto Museum and the Sanfilippo Collection

During my trip to the Chicago area, I made a brief stop at the Volo Auto Museum. Founded in 1960, it's an automobile museum that also has some miscellaneous exhibits on subjects such as vintage arcade games and mechanical music. I had less than an hour to spend here, so I was not able to see everything to the extent that I would have preferred, but I was able to see some highlights.

Across the property are several mini-museums like the Titanic Museum, but they are upcharges and something I did not have time to see on this visit.

Interestingly, the museum is also an operating car dealership, with many of the classic cars on display having dealer tags. The first few showrooms you enter are tightly-packed with vintage Chevrolets and Cadillacs.

The museum owner also appears to have an interest in vintage kiddie rides, and some of them are rideable. However, this one is for looking only, no touch allowed! Imagine how tempting this must be to a kid.

I wasn't able to photograph every movie car in the museum's extensive collection, but here's a 1966 Batmobile from the famous TV show. According to the museum's website, you can rent this car for $3,500 a day! It's a little unclear whether it was screen-used or not, but it appears to have been judging by the information on the webpage.

After the first showroom, the next two rooms are ringed with movie cars. Some are replicas, while others are screen-used.

Both of the cars in this picture--the DeLorean from Back to the Future and the station wagon from National Lampoon's Vacation--are replicas, but that doesn't stop the museum from giving them a lavish treatment with props and images from their respective movies.

One small room is devoted to vintage campers and RVs, which are marvels compared to today's cheaply built RVs. The rest of the room is filled with antiques, including a player piano.

Showroom four is all about rare, unique, and outlandish cars, including a Love Bug used in Herbie Fully Loaded. (Probably not anyone's favorite Love Bug film, but it was the first one I saw when I was little!)

The zany assortment of cars in this hallway give you a sense of how strange the collection is in this showroom. I didn't get a close-up picture, but if you look behind the roller skate, you'll see two of the floats from the former Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade at Animal Kingdom, which ran until 2014. I have no idea how they ended up here. They also have one of the omnibuses that used to travel around World Showcase at EPCOT, but it's not on display at the moment.

The room includes several Duesenberg cars, tank-like and symbols of the Roaring 20s. I can't imagine what it would be like seeing one of these on the road... just look at those exhaust pipes.

I wish I could have spent more time in this room, but this modified Model T from 1914 certainly gave me pause. It was created by Kodak as an advertisement, and the camera on the back is accurate down to the lens. Like the rest of the cars, the restoration work is remarkable.

One reason I came to the museum was to see these classic Disneyland Mold-A-Rama machines from the New York World's Fair. They sat in front of the Pepsi-Cola pavilion and are in remarkable shape. As with any Mold-A-Rama machine, they also give off a memorable aroma.

The Goofy and Donald figures move with the molds when they come together to form the figure.

$10 is quite a bit more than the $0.25 these originally cost, but I guess the museum needs money to fund more restorations!

The art on the sides of the machines is also cool, and it's nice to see them still in working order after 60 years.

Another specificity of the museum is animatronic bands, including this one: The Beagles. It was an early band that played at Chuck E. Cheese's, and it's quite overwhelming how it's packed in around so many other artifacts. There are benches set up facing the band so you can stop and enjoy the show.

Many Chicagoans fondly remember Kiddieland in Melrose Park, and pieces of the park live on around the area. This Allan Herschell kiddie Ferris wheel is still operational, though it wasn't running during my visit.

Another attraction at the Volo Museum is the Carousel Pavilion and Music Hall. I don't know the history behind this old calliope truck, but it is super neat.

Inside the building is a 1928 Allan-Herschell carousel, and many old band organs and penny arcade machines surround the ride. It's another example of the richness found at the museum that surprises and overwhelms you at every turn.

This Wurlitzer 157 band organ used to operate at Coney Island's legendary Luna Park, which I find amazing. Since my visit was in October, it was playing "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Overall, the Volo Museum was a fun stop, but I was rushed and will have to return in the future to fully appreciate all its exhibits. Plus, some things like the carousel and Rockafire Explosion animatronic show were not operating because I visited on a Friday.

The day after visiting the Volo Museum, I had the pleasure of experiencing the Sanfilippo Estate in Barrington, IL, which was definitely one of the highlights of this trip.

The Sanfilippo Estate is a private home only open to the public for occasional tours, like this one with the National Amusement Park Historical Association. We first heard how the late Jasper Sanfilippo transformed his family’s nut business into a successful corporation, channeling millions into the Sanfilippo Collection of pipe organs and steam engines. Seen in this picture is one of the estate’s most prized possessions, the largest restored theater organ in the world at 7,000 pipes.

The architecture of the estate is highly detailed, with many old remnants from closed movie theaters incorporated into its design. However, as an engineer, Jasper Sanfilippo's greatest passion was mechanical music and steam engines, as he was fascinated by these machines for the engineering marvels they were in their time.

It would be a great mistake not to look up in the estate's foyer, as the stained glass ceiling is spectacular.

In addition to pipe organs, the estate contains countless other music machines, like self-playing violins and banjos.

This central atrium stretches for three stories, and as you can see, this place is a haven for any fan of band organ music.

Before leaving the house, we were treated to a demonstration of the Wurlitzer theater organ, which was originally from Ohama, Nebraska and built in 1924. Sitting in this large room with a balcony and Victorian-styled iron arches, the pipe organ serves as the heart of the estate.

We had the chance to tour the pipe chamber, and here's an example of the mess of 7,000 pipes that give the organ its powerful sound.

Although that concluded our tour of the mansion, we weren't done yet! Everyone then drove their cars down the driveway to the estate's Carousel Pavilion, which felt like stepping into another world. The Eden Palais Carousel was originally built in France in 1890 and is certainly one of the most stunning carousels I have seen. It actually has a circuitous history, which includes being sold to the short-lived Magic Mountain theme park in Colorado headed by C.V. Wood in the late 1950s. After being abandoned outdoors in the Colorado sun, the carousel was sold to Virginia City, Nevada, where it was assembled but ultimately languished for 30 years. Acquired by Jasper Sanfilippo in 1987, it took ten years of restoration to bring the carousel to its current state. 

The restoration work is quite beautiful, especially given this is still a functioning ride. Everyone climbed aboard, the Gavioli organ kicked in, and the horses jostled back and forth as the entire platform rumbled around. It was wonderful to experience an immaculately restored European carousel in the suburbs of Chicago.

The ride features some ornate rocking chariots that you do not typically see on American carousels.

Ringing the building are many pipe organs, many of which could dominate a room on their own. This one can actually be overlooked given the scale of the rest of the room's collection, if you can believe it! 
A glamorized Victorian steam train sits on the left side of the building, with a huge room of steam engines sitting beyond.

The Art Nouveau facades of these organs are never to be forgotten, however we were only able to hear a few of them during our visit. I believe that since Jasper Sanfilippo's death in 2020, some of the organs have fallen out of working order since the estate must have at least a hundred.

This picture was taken looking through the mechanism for a clock that came from a local church, which frames the Wurlitzer 180, the largest Wurlitzer band organ ever built. This was one of the organs that was demonstrated during the tour.

It is astounding to think that the Eden Palais carousel was originally a traveling ride, though I'm sure that the facade probably didn't even look this good when it left the workshop, let alone when it was operating. The faux stained glass is a memorable touch.

This is the instrument I was most looking forward to hearing during the visit, the mighty 110 key Gavioli built in Paris in 1906. This organ traveled the English fair circuit for many years, yet it was placed in a trailer without the top half of the facade. After Jasper Sanfilippo purchased the organ, one photograph was discovered of the organ's full facade, and from that one photograph, artisans completely rebuilt the upper facade.

It was meant for a dance hall rather than an amusement park, and it certainly is one of the most powerful band organs I've ever heard.

Here's a short clip if you want to hear the Gavioli in action.

Although Jasper Sanfilippo enough money to purchase anything, he could not get around the community's zoning regulations and was unable to fulfill his dream of having an operating narrow gauge locomotive on the property. However, the locomotive remains inside the building, with a small spur line exiting the building through a garage door. The Carousel Pavilion was a popular location for the many charity events hosted by the Sanfilippo Foundation over the years.

From there, we left the building and thus woke up from what felt like a dream. While it is a little sad that the estate’s spectacular organs only play for a select few invited guests every year, the museum-quality restorations make it a must-visit for any fan of pipe organs or mechanical music. It is a place where the amount of wealth and opulence on display is truly staggering.