Frontier Town - Ocean City, Maryland

Frontier Town is a cool little park themed to the old west that’s celebrating 60 years in 2019. I guess it’s kind of like Knott’s Berry Farm before they started adding all the rides – as far as rides here go, there's not much more than a train and stagecoach, as was typical of parks like this built in the 1950s and 60s. The main attraction at Frontier Town is the western style shows, and there are all kinds, with everything from gunfights to the can-can playing out at some point during the day. In fact, when one show ends, another one begins shortly, so that’s the real appeal of Frontier Town.

The main entrance is simple and feels like it's been unchanged for years, and that spirit remains true throughout the entire park.

 Here's the town square, the main location where the park's shows happen during the day.

Shortly after the opening flag raising, the cattle came parading up the dusty trail! They played the theme from "Rawhide" during this bit, and I swear that I heard the "rolling, rolling, rolling" soundtrack at least five times during our visit. 



Also part of the opening ceremonies is this stagecoach, which gives rides through the backwoods of the park. Leaning out the window you can see "Desert Dan," who provided comedic relief (saying that my dad looked like his lost mule, for instance). 

 Here's one of those gun shows I was referring to. Even though they're all obviously fake, the actors were very upfront in extolling the dangers of their firearms.

 This train is the main ride here, and it runs off of real steam power. I've seen many pictures of this type of miniature locomotive being run at amusement parks, but they've been slowly eliminated over time. I guess most parks don't think that it's worth the effort to keep a complex machine like this running.

In the foreground is the body of water in which Frontier Town once had a riverboat ride, and although it is not operating anymore, the boat is still sitting out in the open. Predictably, the train ride also involves a robbery! I'm terrified.

 Much less complicated than the iron horse is this horse-powered merry-go-round.

There are some old "peek-in" dioramas around the park, like this Chinese laundry.

I was considering getting my cavity filled by "Dr. Yank'em," but now that I see this, I'm having second thoughts.

Through the blinding dust, you can see the saloon. Let's go there...

On the porch of the building, we see this old miner taking a look at a very strange-faced lady. The miner has been a Frontier Town icon for decades.

 Inside is the perfect venue for can-can shows.

At showtime, this place was packed!

 This stadium is the location for the "Great Western Stampede," a variety show. In this picture, you can see the buckboards that sped around the ring. There was also an eleven-year-old performer here, riding two horses at once while standing up!

On the way to the Indian Village is the "Mysterious Mine," a small tilt house with wacky, slanted floors.

 The Indian Village is the home of Native American dances, which are all presented very well with lots of historical "fact vs. fiction" background info.

 I love the humorous graves of the "Boot Hill" cemetery!

Frontier Town was a wonderful trip back into time when small, roadside attractions like this existed. Sure, they've added a waterpark and campground since then, but I'm glad that management sees value in keeping the western town around. It's all fueled by extremely corny humor,  but if you can get yourself to enjoy that (and we all really can if we try...) you'll like Frontier Town. Thanks for reading!

Trimper's Rides - The Historic Carousel Building

This post is a bit of a longer one; I hope you like the change!

At the south end of the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, there's a building that has been a fixture of the amusement park it is part of, Trimper's, for over 100 years. At the heart of both the building and the park is a historic, turn-of-the-century (I find conflicting dates everywhere.) carousel. It was manufactured by the Herschell-Spillman Company and is kept in very good shape. 

Here's the machine's "lead horse," or the animal that is most ornately designed. However, this carousel is of the menagerie variety, which means that there's everything from the rooster in the background of this picture to a frog wearing a tuxedo. 

A look around shows that there is more in this structure than just the carousel.

 The antique kiddie rides here represent one of the best collection of rides made by the W.F. Mangels company anywhere. The majority of them, like this Ferris Wheel, date from as far back as the 1920s.

Mangels is most famous for its invention of the Whip, and Trimper's has perhaps the most ornately painted version anywhere - and a kiddie one, at that!

 All around the carousel building is a prevailing sense of artistry, with pretty much every available surface beautified in some way.

Adjacent to the large version is a kiddie Merry-Go-Round that is also kept up with nicely.

Just look at those tiny murals on the back of this bench. Immaculate.

This Snoopy-themed Sky Fighter ride has most likely been the exact same from the 1960s, and it's been personalized in a way truly unique to the park. Take this, for example:

"If my brakes fail me, I'll be stuck on that Merry-Go-Round!"

Unsurprisingly, the Merry-Go-Round is right there!

These "wet" boats (real water) are very cool and quite large.

These clown faces are pretty prevalent among classic amusement parks, and Trimper's has two of them.

These buildings are real old-school amusement park experiences, trips back in time. They seem to be found pretty commonly on coastlines, with their collection of older kiddie rides, but the Trimper's collection is among the best remaining. But although it's my favorite place in the park, there's more to Trimper's than just this inside portion, and we'll be taking a look at in the future. There'll be more to come from the old rides in this building, as well.

Comments have been changed to a pop-up window format, which will hopefully be more user-friendly. Thanks for reading!

The Site of Idora Park

 Idora Park left Youngstown, Ohio 35 years ago, yet the old park site has remained undeveloped since then. It's quite a sight to behold:

This was the location of Idora's old 'upper midway,' which had all sorts of typical flat rides. I tried finding a picture of it, but I couldn't get a good one. 

 You can just imagine the screams and squeals of the fun that came before here. The wooden roller coasters along with most of the buildings remained until everything was demolished in 2001.

 This is the old road that led into the parking area. Now it goes towards a grassy field...


Maybe one day this site can be made into a public park, perhaps even with a few portable rides!

The Idora Park Experience

 In Youngstown, Ohio is a small, homespun museum dedicated to the city's old amusement park. Idora Park operated 1899-1983, and although the park is long gone, a couple has preserved some old artifacts from it in a building behind their home. Let's take a quick look around!

 Here's a car from the park's old Tumble Bug ride. I understand that it's completely been refurbished by a local technical school since this picture was taken in 2016.

Since the museum is only open about two times a year, a good turnout is to be expected.

 One of the most striking features inside is this model of Idora's biggest roller coaster, the Wildcat. It burned during the off-season before the 1983 summer, which ended up being a major factor in the park's demise.

Of course, the park had a Tilt-A-Whirl, and one of the old cages is backed by the original sign and some of the decorative work. I hope you enjoyed this post!

The site of the old park remains today. We'll be taking a look at that sometime in the future.

Knoebels Trip Report Pt. 3

The Knoebels fun is 'chugging' right along...

Eh?

 The miniature train at Knoebels is great for a lot of different reasons. It moves at a nice clip, takes a nice journey underneath Twister - one of the park's wooden coasters - and there's a place where the park sets out corn near the train's turnaround that often attracts squirrels.

 This picture was taken from the Knoebels Scenic Skyway, which takes a stunning climb up and down one of the mountains that border the park. Wooden coasters are best in lush settings like this!

 That aforementioned coaster is Twister, one of the two big Knoebels woodies. Celebrating 20 years in 2019, Twister was my favorite coaster at Knoebels on my last visit in 2016, but it couldn’t top the awesomeness of Phoenix on this trip. Twister is a semi-faithful recreation of the old Mister Twister at Elitch Gardens, one of the most legendary wooden coasters of all time. When the park re-created it in Pennsylvania, however, they didn't quite have enough room so two lift hills were built pretty much right on top of each other to save space. These two lift hills build anticipation, and this is certainly the wood coaster in the park for people into huge drops. 

The last of the three wooden coasters at Knoebels that is Flying Turns. This is a coaster built on determination. If you're not familiar with this style of roller coaster, they are essentially cars that ride freely through a trough without a set track. They were initially popular in the 1930s, and although some versions were resurrected in steel form around the 1980s, a wooden version of the "bobsled" coaster was nonexistent for about 70 years. That is, until Knoebels stepped in and took on the project! Starting in 2006, they worked to bring this ride back from the dead. It took... wait for it... 7 years (mainly to develop the train)... but the ride eventually opened to much acclaim in 2013. It's an all-out fun experience that's completely unique to Knoebels.

I hope that you've enjoyed this trip to Knoebels!

By the way, I've been enjoying doing this blog every day, but from here on I think that I'm going to take a step back from doing daily posts. The show won't stop, though! I'll probably still have a post at least once a week. I appreciate everyone's support. I really wasn't expecting it!

Knoebels Trip Report Pt. 2

Knoebels is one of my favorite amusement parks, so let's continue our look at my recent day there!

 Earlier in the day dad and I boarded a “minecart” to take a journey through the coal mine theming of this darkride/coaster hybrid, Black Diamond. It was even better than I remembered it being three years ago! I certainly noticed things that I didn’t see back then – themed to Pennsylvania coal mines, the level of detail throughout the whole attraction is beyond small park level. I honestly think that this ride might be superior to the park’s classic dark attraction, Haunted Mansion, as Black Diamond has a wonderful collection of gags as well as the added fun little roller coaster drops. It’s so, so awesome that Knoebels would see value in resurrecting such an old ride, and in the 2010s, nonetheless! 

After Black Diamond, we decided to keep the darkride fun going with a ride on what may be my favorite attraction at Knoebels, the Haunted Mansion. After paying the $2.50 upcharge (which is apparently to prevent vandalism to the stunts - not really that high of a price, especially considering the quality of this ride), we began our trip. The Haunted Mansion may be one of the best if not the best classic darkride in the country. The stunts are all impeccably timed, with the lights often going out just as something flies out at you, and the use of diversion is also used to an incredible advantage. I’ve been watching videos of the ride for years, so I wasn’t startled but instead was just able to soak it in and enjoy the style at work here. A not to be missed ride while at Knoebels!

Around the park are little details of all sorts - take this North Pole in front of the Christmas shop that is ice-cold in the heat of summer!

Another thing that Knoebels is well-known for is their varied collection of band organs. This one is over 110 years old. Not connected to any carousel, it just sits on the midway and provides valuable atmosphere. The two Knoebels carousels certainly have wonderful organs, though!

It's a relatively well-known fact, but the Knoebels Grand Carousel is one of just a handful of rides left in the country on which you can catch the brass ring. My ring-catching ability remained fairly consistent with my earlier ride that day – not terrible, but it could definitely be better. It's definitely something I would like to improve on; I have no idea how some people can apparently grab two rings on one go!

More Knoebels pictures are coming tomorrow. Sorry for the weird text sizes; I guess it happens when you copy and paste form Microsoft Word.