Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
A wide-ranging history of twenty family-centered commercial attractions that flourished in the Adiroradacks over a one-hundred-year period.
Adirondack Theme Parks and Attractions offers an in-depth history of the diverse array of family-oriented attractions that originated in this upstate New York region during the hundred-year period from the late 1870s. It highlights some of the creative, unconventional entrepreneurs who came up with the ideas for these centers of family fun, including
· Joseph S. Sterling, whose two farms designed for the breeding of animals for the fur-coat trade morphed into popular wild animal attractions
· Arto Monaco, designer of Santa's Workshop, two Gaslight Villages, Old McDonald's Farm, later iterations of Storytown, and his own Land of Makebelieve
· Arthur L. Bensen, whose initial interest in America's historical "frontiers" led to cowboy-themed Frontier Town.
· Charles (Charley) R. Wood, who imagined Storytown, as well as one Gaslight Village, and eventually oversaw an amusement-related business empire in the Lake George area
· Thomas J. Yund, and his enthusiasm for astronomy that laid the foundation for future-oriented Time Town
"Even before Disneyland opened in 1955, the amusement park industry was changing as the parents of Baby Boomers loaded their children into their station wagons for the Great American Roadtrip. Adirondack Theme Parks and Attractions takes readers to that golden age when roadside attractions sprang up across America and the Adirondack region played a critical role in creating the theme park era." — Jim Futrell, IAAPA Historian
"In Adirondack Theme Parks and Attractions, author and historian Sally Svenson provides a comprehensive history of iconic Adirondack amusement/theme parks and attractions. She paints a vivid picture of each, alongside a history of its development and evolution. Woven through the book is a social history of the twentieth century, particularly as reflected against a backdrop of the post–World War II baby boom. Svenson's authoritative bibliography and thorough endnotes offer a path for the reader to further explore this fascinating topic. The book could also serve as a travel companion for road trips to visit what remain of these historic Adirondack places." — Erin Tobin, Executive Director, Adirondack Architectural Heritage
Sally E. Svenson is an independent scholar. A seasonal resident of the Adirondacks for nearly twenty-five years and a former trustee of the Adirondack Experience, she is the author of several books on aspects of Adirondack history, including Adirondack Churches: A History of Design and Building; Blacks in the Adirondacks: A History; and Adirondack Photographers, 1850–1950. She lives in New York City.
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Sacandaga Park
2. Sterling's Alaska Fur and Game Farm/1,000 Animals
3. Caroga Amusement Parks of the 1920s
4. Arto Monaco: Adirondack Theme Park Designer
5. Santa's Workshop
6. Gaslight Village, Pottersville
7. Indian Village
8. Frontier Town
9. Old McDonald's Farm
10. Florida Seminole Indian Village
11. Animal Land
12. Land of Makebelieve
13. Storytown/The Great Escape
14. Enchanted Forest
15. Serpentarium
16. Gaslight Village, Lake George
17. Marketing Adirondack Attractions
18. Magic Forest
19. Mystery Spot
20. Time Town
21. Water Slide World
22. Into the Twenty-first Century
Notes
Bibliography
Index