Last year, I did a post on Leap the Dips, the world's oldest roller coaster, at Lakemont Park in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Since I focused on that specific ride last time, I figured I'd do a post showing the rest of the park's (limited) attractions. Opened in 1893, Lakemont Park is the 8th oldest amusement park in the United States. The park was purchased by the Boyer Candy Co in 1986, a local business famous for the Mallo Cup. They only owned the park for two years yet did some damage to its history and reputation, such as cutting down many of the trees in the park and letting Leap the Dips fall idle. Lakemont is now operated by the county who was been trying to get it back on its feet for years and years now.
In the satellite image below, you can see two of the parts left over from Boyer's failed plan. The street on the left was meant to be a shopping and dining district - it's nothing like Disney's Main St! Today, it's isolated from the rest of the park. They also built a gigantic entrance on the right, which now sits as an attractive but unused structure. 'Coz 'ya know, it's not smart to try and develop a major theme park with limited funds in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania!
The Boyer Candy Co's intentions to turn Lakemont into their own version of Hersheypark failed, and soon carnival rides were brought in that would be a staple at Lakemont for several decades.
It's a rough ride that has had minimal track replaced for a while, but I still love it!
There's "Peoples Natural Gas Field!" Hm....
The Skyliner serves as a scenic backdrop to the ballpark. Remember the painted message on the train? Well, the only problem is that it was painted on the wrong side... just kidding!
Scenes like this are why I think Pennsylvania is great...
Another attraction retained after the renovation was the Antique Cars. Check out the red guide rail...
...exciting, right? Anyway, these cars are by far the fastest I've been on in any park!
The Miniature Train is the last considerable ride in the park. The engine is a standard Chance Rides C.P. Huntington, still being manufactured after 60 years!
A really old-looking engine sits on the siding.
Here's the Ponyshoe Curve! I can't handle the drama!!
As you can tell by these pics, it was a ghost town when I visited last year. A big reason why they removed a lot of rides is because of low attendance.
That's it from charming Lakemont Park. Surprisingly, there's another vintage park just a few minutes down the road from Lakemont that is much more prosperous but remained closed last year. I'm hoping to visit this summer.
11 comments:
This was a great park to bring the family. You had me going for a second about Go Curve being painted on the wrong side!
Wow, I'm impressed that you found this post so quickly, Crumb Crunchers! Welcome to the blog and thanks for reading!
My mom used to love "Mallo Cups." They tend to be much harder to find (here in California, anyway) than their identical counterpart, "Cup O' Gold," which was produced by a rival candy company.
That's sad that the county had to get rid of some of the park's rides. I hope they are able to keep and maintain the rides they still have, including their historic coaster!
Thanks for reading, TM! I don't know if I've ever had a Mallo Cup...
(If you're wondering, "Crumb Crunchers" is my dad.)
Andrew, it's always good to have the support of family! My brother reads every single one of my blog posts. He just doesn't comment publicly.....only privately to me, in person!
Andrew, thank you for another fun trip, exploring this historic park! I'm glad some of the older rides have survived, and I enjoyed all the history you shared, here, too.
Crumb Crunchers: You sure are a FUN family - going to all these wonderful places! And you raised a GREAT kid!
Sue
It sure feels as if Pennsylvania is relatively jam-packed with amusement parks, from the small and humble to the large and venerable. I don’t think my interest in amusement parks went much beyond my Disneyland obsession, but I regret it now, knowing that I could have visited some of these places, as well as others that have disappeared.
I would think that rides would be much more appealing to the general public that basketball courts and mini golf, but clearly I am wrong. If nothing else, all of the young parents would want something to do with their kids on weekends! Maybe that wasn’t enough to justify keeping the rides.
Also, how fast do those little cars go, anyway? 10 mph instead of 6 mph? Or more like 15 mph? I like the red safety railing, very spiffy.
The “Altoona Curve”, do you go to their games? When we lived in Pennsylvania, we tended to go to see the Hershey Bears play hockey. Somewhere I still have my souvenir puck from “puck night”.
Thanks Andrew!
My family appreciates the kind words, TokyoMagic! and Sue!
Thanks for commenting, Major! Don't worry about making a point to do it if you're busy - there are more important things in life... or something like that.
I think that locals viewed Lakemont as kind of an "old and tired" park, plus there's another traditional park that has a much better history of upkeep right down the road, so they're trying to redefine their image (for the umpteenth time).
The cars probably only go about 10 mph, but it feels like 20 when you're used to them being slow.
I've never been to a minor league game here, but I've been to lots of Pittsburgh Pirates games! My dad threw a first pitch he won because of Fan Appreciation Day, and I got to be part of the color guard in Cub Scouts. I haven't been to a Penguins hockey match or even a Steelers game, though!
Ponyshoe Curve - I love it! I am very familiar with Hoseshoe Curve, even if I've never seen it in person (my dad has, though).
Sad to see so many of the rides have been removed, but I'm grateful it's still open at all.
Crumb Crunchers, thanks for taking Andrew to such neat places and for letting him come out and play with the big kids!
I haven't seen the Horseshoe Curve yet either, Chuck. I would also like to check out the Railroaders Museum in town. Thanks for reading, and I will pass the kind words on to my Dad.
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