Daily Posts? - Idlewild Story Book Forest

Would it be cool to do daily posts here? I think it would. Hopefully it might get some people to read this blog, especially if the posts are of "quality" content. So, to start Bayern Kurve Blog, I present a few pictures my dad took of Idlewild's Story Book Forest in 2012 and 2013, which were my first visits to the park.

Story Book Forest's entrance has always been through this giant book. The original hand-painted art show in this picture dated back to the park's opening year of 1956. In 2015, it sadly was re-skinned with this ugly computer design:

One of the area's most well-known buildings is the Crooked Little House of the Crooked Little Man. Reportedly, the carpenters never needed to use a level in its construction! But that's probably just a tall tale.

Moving along, we past the Three Billy Goats Gruff, live animals that still call SBF home.

Jack and the Beanstalk was one of the Forest's coolest displays, but has since been removed. Was it because of structural concerns? I'd like to know; it always looked as if those huge figures were perilously hanging off the stalk.

Here we have the Golden Knight and Guinevere, along with the dragon formerly seen in Kennywood's beloved classic darkride, Le Cachot.

Here's the dragon as in the ride. (Not my picture; I found it on some darkride website awhile back.)

Since when this picture was taken, the knight figure and Guinevere have been done away with, and the dragon is desperately in need of a new coat of paint. (If these seem like negative changes, they are, but Story Book Forest does gain new coats of paint and touch-ups every year. They're just selective, I guess.)

Skipping ahead a bit, we have Humpty Dumpty "Still on the Wall" - another original display.

Finally, at the path's exit, we find this amazing smiling Jack-in-the-Box. It was perhaps the funniest (and maybe even creepiest to some) display in Story Book, but it was removed at the end of 2015 for SBF's 60th anniversary addition, the Enchanted Castle:

Don't get me wrong, the castle is very nice, but it's not even on the spot of the old Jack-in-the-Box. I hope it still exists and can be brought back some day.

    I hope you enjoyed this very speedy (and not at all balanced) tour of Story Book Forest. SBF is something that I hope to explore in-depth in the future on here. I'm fascinated by its old state, when it was home to many hand-painted signs and artistic flourishes, which was not so long ago but has mostly disappeared today. Even like this, I'd have to say that Story Book is my favorite part of Idlewild. I just wished I knew if the park still had an in-house artist... 



First Post!

Ok. So this is a blog. My name is Andrew, and I'm starting this because I've got some free time and would enjoy writing about my passions - mainly amusement parks and history. Just to be upfront, at the time of this writing I am 14 years old, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. (Is it cool for a teenager  to have a blog in 2019? Most certainly not.) I don't have the wisdom that the internet probably expects, but if you're reading this, I hope you enjoy what I write about here... I'm not really sure what it will be yet, but hopefully it'll be good. Have fun!


This picture is from April 2012. I was 7. As you can see, amusement parks have been a long-standing passion for me, so I like to think that I have learned some things over the elapsed seven years.