Canobie Lake Park New Hampshire

Lengthy earlier than up to date curler coasters had been hurling guests through the air at face-peeling speed, American theme parks had been locations of pastoral leisure and easy pleasures, involving issues like picnics and penny arcades. One such place, Canobie Lake Park, is a folksy vacation spot in southern New Hampshire that bridges the hole between the outdated and the brand new; the old-timey purity and the adrenaline-pumping terror of a curler coaster with a 97-degree plummet.

The oldest theme park within the Granite State–and one of many oldest within the nation–Canobie Lake Park first emerged in 1902 as a captivating trolley park, providing a lakeside retreat for households in and across the Massachusetts-adjacent city of Salem. And whereas know-how has amped up the joys issue over the following century, it’s a park that retains a traditional quaintness and Americana kitsch that looks like New England’s very personal Dollywood. However as a substitute of Dolly Parton and Civil War-themed dinner shows, right here you may discover acrobatic rescue dogs and fried dough BLTs. This is what to learn about visiting Canobie Lake Park.

Trolley park roots

It was a less complicated time for theme parks again within the day. Lengthy earlier than the Star Wars cosplay and the 13-story Wonder Woman roller coasters, trolley parks had been primarily gardens and leisurely recreation areas for households to frequent alongside streetcar strains within the late 1800s. The OG of theme parks, they had been much less about adrenaline and 4-D immersion and extra about picnicking in a park and watching fireworks—possibly floating in a canoe should you had been feeling loopy. Canobie Lake Park was such a spot, opened in 1902 by The Hudson, Pelham & Salem Railways as a strategy to encourage folks to make use of their streetcars and provides them a vacation spot to frequent for healthful household enjoyable.

Certainly, Canobie Lake Park’s botanical backyard vibe attracted fairly the refined crowd. People got here clad of their best garb, donning robes and fits to hit the penny arcade and experience the Circle Swing. The entire vibe regarded like a Georges Seurat portray, full with waterfront inexperienced house, cottage-like buildings, and forested pathways. Pre-roller coaster, this was a spot primarily used for picnics, gaming, and informal sporting occasions—till the onset of the auto introduced issues to a screeching halt and altered the face of trolley parks eternally.

An exhilarating new period

After Canobie Lake Park’s heyday as a trolley automobile mainstay, occasions had been a-changing within the Nineteen Twenties. The rise of the auto meant the downfall of the streetcar—and thus, the demise of the trolley park. As streetcar strains dwindled, so too did attendance at Canobie Lake Park, culminating in its closure in 1929. Happily, the downfall was transient, and it emerged anew a number of years later with thrilling new options—together with, as a brand new necessity, a parking zone—to bolster curiosity and attendance.

Canobie 2.0 reopened in 1932, with a number of new methods within the works—specifically, a stunning new wood experience known as the Greyhound Curler Coaster, which was shipped from Connecticut and re-assembled on website. Nonetheless in operation immediately and now often called the Yankee Cannonball, the rickety attraction was a game-changer for the park that opened the doorways for a slew of latest actions, rides, and occasions.

It’s motif, too, took on a bucolic fairy land aesthetic, as meandering pathways by means of the bushes crammed in with dance halls, efficiency levels, carnival-style video games, concessionaires, and wood-clad buildings capped with spires and flags. The vintage carousel, constructed in 1903 and full of gilded horses swiveling to orchestral organ music, grew to become fairly the show-stopping centerpiece.

Then got here the celebs. Though Canobie Lake Park has but to be graced by Dolly Parton’s presence, its Dancehall Theater grew to become fairly the star-studded attraction by the Fifties, occurring to host A-list performances from the likes of Duke Ellington, Jimmy Dorsey, Aerosmith, and Sonny & Cher. At one stunning cut-off date, you would see Cher singing within the New Hampshire woods, dreaming of a future that solely Dippin’ Dots may ship.

However not even Cher may defend Canobie from America’s frivolous relationship to theme parks. By the late ‘50s, curler coasters had been disappearing at a fast clip throughout the nation, and the park may now not depend on the Yankee Cannonball to do the heavy-lifting because the marquis attraction. With new possession in 1958 got here a brand new mission to dig deep and pave the best way for a extra sturdy future. Actually, this meant paving pathways by means of the woods, and including a bevy of latest eateries, arcades, video games, and rides.

Canobie Lake Park immediately

These days, whilst you possible received’t see Cher performing any time quickly, you can watch rescue canines leap by means of the air to catch frisbees. Or pose for photographs with Dapper the Canine, mainly the Mickey Mouse of Canobie Lake Park. A far cry from its trolley park days of yore, the parking zone is routinely at capability, full of of us from throughout New England in search of a style of old-timey enjoyable.

By way of all its ebbs and flows, the park maintains a country, folksy atmosphere that feels completely preserved in time—and in a world full of over-the-top Harry Potter rides and theme parks more expensive than your mortgage, it’s a breath of recent air. That’s to not say Canobie hasn’t superior and innovated, although. The tree-lined pathways, shimmering lake views, vintage-looking go-carts, refurbished carousel, and fake casinos all protect the Americana environment, whereas new points of interest, rides, and snacks (the fried dough BLT is the audacious consolation meals of your goals) proceed to catapult the park into a brand new period of putting up with nostalgia for future generations.

The Yankee Cannonball remains to be going robust, jettisoning guests out on a wood romp by the parking zone, whereas different thrills embody the super-soaked Boston Tea Occasion boat experience, the fast-spinning Turkish Twist that’ll make you’re feeling like laundry in a washer, and the hilariously spooky Mine of Misplaced Souls, which looks like a frontier-themed precursor to Disney’s Haunted Mansion. The most recent novelty is the park’s most intense attraction up to now, a vaguely lumberjack-themed coaster known as, unnervingly, Untamed. Friends board grizzly bear vehicles and buckle up for a collection of speedy loops and zero-gravity rolls, together with a 72-foot drop that goes past vertical.

With greater than 80 points of interest at this level, Canobie Lake Park remains to be as family-friendly as ever, with loads of rides and video games for teenagers of all ages, just like the Kiddie Canoes and Pony Carts. There’s additionally a water park, Castaway Island, and the autumnal Screeemfest with haunted homes, creepy reveals, and free-roaming monsters lurking at the hours of darkness.

Rather a lot has modified and grown at Canobie Lake Park, one of many oldest and most enduring theme parks within the nation. Certain, the roller coasters aren’t all wood anymore, the arcade video games price greater than a penny, and ballgowns are now not the standard apparel, however it’s nonetheless a pastoral paradise for familial enjoyable within the New Hampshire woods.

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