Sad. I lived here as a child when park was still operational and could hear the roller coaster from my trailer. I still have dreams about walking through the park with my dad.. although in the dreams the park is often abandoned like this but not as bad.. feels like a ghost of a beloved memory. An entire lifetime ago.. I remember when it was full of children, laughter and fun and games :(
It's heartbreaking to see these wonderful old "golden age parks" crumble away. So very few amusement enterprises survive as it is, and to lose treasures like these is a tremendous loss. Tragic as it is, I am glad that you have documented this place for everyone to see.
Man i must have ridden that rollercoaster 50 times. Lots of childhood memories there. That place used to be PACKED during the summer.Very cool to see. Thx for the video!
I grew up going to this park. Then at age 14 (50 years ago), I worked there selling ice cream sandwiches. It was very sad when it closed down. All the big parks like Hershey Park finally put it out of business. Like another small park close to here. They still use the top part where the steam engines were as a flea market every Sunday. A lot of memories.
I've seen many people climbing abandoned wooden coasters; for most it does not end well. Even after decades of not being used the wooden tracks are worse than walking on ice
As a kid I went to this park. ..... was so nice .... had a water slide .... I miss these kinds of parks where you could pay as you go and just walk in and enjoy
If you want a park like that go to Knoebels, it's the biggest free admission park in America, and the most expensive rides (the big coasters) are a mere $3.
Makes me think about the families, the workers the community that once supported this place. Seems like it was a fun destination on a hot summer night watching fireworks over the lake after a cookout. Sounds and sights, fireflies and crickets, cicadas, birds, bees and butterflies.
Sad to see it like this. My grandmother used to take me there when I was a kid. It was a nice alternative to the much more expensive Hersheypark. The problem is, anytime it would rain for a couple days or snow a lot over the winter, that place would be underwater. I was surprised it lasted as long as it did. It had to be a pain in the butt for the owners every time it flooded. Especially since they didn’t charge much for anything. I think the main attraction for anybody for that place was the waterslide. Something not anybody else had anywhere near there. It was cheap too. Like five dollars for a day. I think you can get an armband to write everything throughout the day for like eight dollars. They had a great arcade too. Such great times such great memories.
I rode that rollercoaster maybe a year or two before the park closed. I've been assured that wooden roller coasters are supposed to flex and bend and the supports are supposed to move when the car passes over, but it was quite terrifying to experience.
When I was really young, my aunt took us to Nayog Park, which was an amusement park in PA. The other amusement park in PA that I remember was Ghost Town in the Glen, in Moosic, PA. I just wondered if you remember either of those parks.
MegaGinia Ghost Town and the Glen!!! Awesome. I remember the day I said to myself "I want to learn to play music" was while I was on the bumper cars there and Lonesome Loser was playin over the park loudspeakers. Lol. Never ever will forget it.
Nay Aug is still a park, but the carnival rides were taken out many years ago, and the Scranton Zoo has also been shut down for many years. Still has a big swimming pool, though different than when it first opened. Has a drive through Christmas lights display every year. Picnic areas, a pavilion, the tree house and some other things. www.scrantonpa.gov/nayaug_park.html
Yes and MegaGinia do you remember ROLLING GREEN AMUSEMENT PARK? MY Parents took us to KNOEBELS AMUSEMENT PARK every summer and then one summer they took us to ROLLING GREEN. It was as good as Knoebels! Then a few years later it was closed down and turned into parking lots I heard!
You have bigger balls than I do trespassing like that, kudos to you and thank you for risking your freedom to bring us reminders of the past. I fully support what you do.
@@izzimichaels2892 Yeah man. Dat is nots rights, yez know? Tresspassin ain't rights and I agreein wit ya. Good points bout dat tresspassin. Yez can't like tresspassin and I tink yez right.
@@izzimichaels2892 everyone who cares about history, our past, architecture, design, big business & conglomerates dictating what the public needs & wants, and all sorts of other things, should support trespassing... Don't be silly, the people documenting these things are not going into some low-income family's house and bothering/ destroying their things. State agencies and local governments don't want us to remember that many things were better in the past, when people communed, when there was less variety yet somehow more, and there was way more comfort. They don't want us to stop craving new, improved, bigger, better, more expensive, more homogenous. They don't want us to realise humans are better off, not to mention much more happy, when we spent time having dinner together at a table, went places together as a family on weekends, and didn't spend our free time indoors - shopping, playing video games, or on social media. They don't want us to know just how many pieces of land are sat rotting, because it makes someone, somewhere, more money than utilising that land. So anyone with a brain should support this sort of trespassing. They don't want us to see these places for a reason.
oooommmmgggg. That wooden roller coaster was nastalgic.....but scarey due to the fact it made noises that the coasters at Hershy never made...lol. I thank you for a reminder of childhood that I was NOT expecting!!
What a pity. They left so much stuff behind! I wouldn't mind (legally) having some of those relics. Places like this mesmerize me. I love abandoned places. What a shame, really. Great job and thanks for posting.
I wish you could have seen the park in all its glory, prior to the last owner owning it and destroying it. I was raised there along with my sister and four brothers. My sister got married in the chapel that is still there today. It was a great place to grow up at. It breaks my heart to see what has happened to it.
I used to live in one of the summer houses. The little white one, on the front side of the park, right behind the site where the WildCat used to sit. Living there during the summers when the park still operated, were some of the best summers of my life. I really wish Mr. Hughes would have found someone. My dad attemted to buy it, but the purchase was unsuccessful. It breaks my heart to see it like this.
My parents would take my brother and myself to this park on Labor day every year in the 1950's early 1960's for one last fling before the new school year would start. We loved going there.
Looks a nice area to spend the morning drinking coffee....Lots of trees, some manmade ambient features, sounds of excitement, and people gathering all around. Looks like its in the middle of the woods.
Brian M it is we go to the racetrack across the street from the park and you can see the rides and stuff and it feels like someone will jump out and shoot ya
Of course like every other child who lived in Northeastern PA, our stomping grounds on Summer holidays were always Angela Park. Moms would play bingo, Dad's would play poker under the shady pine trees with a keg of beer, and we would run around the park. I WAS NEVER IN THAT SWIMMING POOL, though...only my older sister who was a "teen" go to go swimming all day. I guess it was easier for our Mom's not to have to watch us swim so they could play bingo. I worked as a Home Health Nurse in the early 1990's and Hazleton was an area I had to go to. I frequently drove up Route 309 and when I got near the park, my eyes just went crazy looking at all the ruins. One day on my way to see a patient in Hazleton, the Rollercoaster was knocked down!! I almost drove off the road in disbelief!! I think I started to cry a bit. A very sad day that was for me, I will always remember. I believe it was the Summer of 1991. Yes. EXactly THAT year..... :(
I have bin to this park after it was closed every Sunday from when I was 5 years old till the flea market was closed down because of an ascendant I was around 12 years old loved to walk around and play on the old Mary go round or what was left of it
The Cyclone is the scariest coaster ever. Tons of air time on the bunny hills and you felt like you were going out into the air when you hit the first horseshoe.
Anyone who captures footage in this park DOES have to protect their identity. This is one of the most protected abandoned parks in PA. The people who own it have no problem pointing a gun at those who trespass even if there is no intent to cause harm or loot.
biff's got a good point. Say they run into you in the park. Is telling them that the audio is obscured on your videos going to stop them from pointing a gun at you? once you're there it's too late. i'm sure they don't have some radar that tells them when people specifically from youtube are in their parks either.
Kinda sad to see it this way. I have very fond childhood memories of visiting the park in the early to late 70s, with an encore visit as a grown-up, circa 1999/2000. My Dad worked for Carlisle Tire & Rubber and they used to have their company picnics there. Back in those days, there would be thousands of people in the park!
most companies are creating a monopoly with the parks that are open. Also, when the economy is rough, people are less likely to pay to attend amusement parks (although it's such a shame when this happens. We are truly going to be sorry when they are all gone and we are only left with the modern option.
Visited this place every summer throughout the late 90's with my dad's company picnic. It was always fun. I remember seeing a swan knock down a little kid and steal his hot dog by the paddle boat pond. Lotta nostalgia seeing this vid.
Partial, semi-collapsed roller-coasters have been restored in the past, but it is infrequent, expensive, and difficult to do. But, not impossible. The only "recent" example that comes to mind for me is the "Zippin Pippin" roller-coaster in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This roller-coaster was basically scrap timber, and it was completely rebuilt with as many of the original components as possible.
Thank you for providing invaluable images for my research for my novel. In it, my character goes into an abandoned carnival and this video has perfect imagery in it for me to include.
Wow ... kinda sad, y'know? Some cool artwork on the walls ... And such wonderful steam trains an' stuff. I gather those are still in use ... not real easy to move 'em anywhere else, I'd imagine ... Thanks for an interesting vid!
Hadn't seen this in a long time, so I watched it again, more of an eye for detail this time. Must admit, I'd hafta flat-out steal some of that stuff! That collectible large Coca-Cola box, the two little tin boxes, and maybe even the spooky little wooden figure! Enjoyed seeing this again, but still think it has a rather sad feeling overall. And a tad dangerous; hey, who could resist the temptation to walk just a little way up the roller coaster tracks? And, those sheds holding dangerous chemicals, most likely still there; the photog had the good sense to stay away from them, I suspect!
Idk why Im on this side of youtube. Just Im like you people who are into the discovery and geographic stuff. That and I just find abandoned place really fascinating but creepy too, you know?
I worked at Geauga Lake Park in NE Ohio, for 17 years. I still get a little upset when I drive by. A little pissed off too. Closing it was like banishing all the memories and energy and history to a black hole.
i have a very vivid memory of walking around this park as a kid after it was abandoned and turned into a flea market. it doesnt help that it was a really foggy morning when i was there, and there was hardly any people around, so my child-brain kept imagining monsters/creatures hiding behind trees and the dilapidated rollercoaster
for me the most interesting part of abandoned parks like this are the mini railways and trains, if i was there i would be all to to tempted to try and start them...
Wow, should have brought a camera when two of my friends showed me this old fertilizer factory in the middle of the city. I just can't help but remember how you get goosebumps at almost every corner or new room where you don't know what's there.
Attention all " grove" park fans. As I've posted here before, I helped dismantle most of the rides back in '07( fun house, disco star, monster, bumper cars, carousel,airplane, etc etc. the monster was packed into 3 shipping containers last week(10-04-14) and put on a cargo ship for the Dominican Republic. Maybe it will have a new life, as it was in good shape and I took care dismantling her. Better than the life she had the last few years, sitting on flatbed trailers,waiting for a buyer
ButThatsShacksTrain I used to go there all the time as a kid. We had "The Town Picnic" there for West Fairviewites. Good to know about the Monster getting new life- my friends and I called it the Vomit Comet, and one year they dared me to call the ride operator the Duke of Puke to his face, so I did, and at the end of the ride when he was letting all the kids out, he spun my car. And he'd let out all the kids on my branch, and then spin me again, and let out all the kids on the next one and so on... I was in that little spinning car for a long time and I will never forget that ride or that funky guy.
I have AMAZING memories of that park! Even when things began to decline, we went there for family "reunions". Back in the 70's & early 80's. Wish it were there for my kids today!
My grandfather used to work there in his youth. This guy entered through the still very active Steam Engineer's Association. They run that locomotive at their annual show every year in August.
I'm the type of person that would love to go to these places if I had the nerve. They look so cool! And there's some sort of mysterious feel to them :D
This is near my house. They still hold steam train events and a weekly flea market on the upper part of the property. Until last year or so, the flea market was also on the amusement park property. I would consider this to be active rather than abandoned.
This is one of the many amusement parks that I would like to get out of private hands and see them to be restored to their former glory as well as preserve their historical integrity to show to future generations.
someone should invest in restoring that amusement park especially the miniature Railroad and roller coaster that would be something to be restored Resurrected
Its not abandoned per say. The grounds are still used for a flea market, the tracks are used by the steam engine society. Its a shame that it closed, all good things come to an end.
I wish there way a way to get that roller coaster out of there I feel like could be still put to use by another park so sad I wish there was something I could do :(
Because they're not abandoned, they are still cared for and operated occasionally by a group of volunteers. Actually they're owned by a historical society and never were owned by the now abandoned park.
