California amusement parks we have misplaced endlessly

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Information that the Nice America amusement park in Santa Clara shall be closing in the next 11 years could deliver again reminiscences of different California theme parks which have shuttered through the years. These are just a few of essentially the most memorable parks which might be gone for good.

Playland on the Seashore

Playland on the Seashore straddled San Francisco’s Ocean Seashore on the western finish of the Richmond neighborhood from 1913 until 1972, although the primary journey — the Gravity Railroad curler coaster — opened in 1884.

A highly regarded attraction at Playland was a enjoyable home that includes animatronic characters. Till a 1983 rework, the enjoyable home on the Santa Cruz Seashore boardwalk was equivalent on the within to the Playland enjoyable home.

There have been additionally bumper automobiles, a Ferris wheel, a shoot-the-chute, a carousel and an enormous digital camera referred to as the Digital camera Obscura.

After the demise of Normal Supervisor George Whitney Sr. in 1958, Whitney’s widow offered her stake in Playland to an actual property developer, who in flip offered to Jeremy Ets-Hokin, who tore down the positioning in 1972 with the intention of constructing condominiums. Playland closed, with little fanfare, after Labor Day weekend.

Nonetheless, the reminiscence of the park lives on within the Bay Space: the Laughing Sal animatronic character is on the Musée Mécanique on Fisherman’s Wharf, the Digital camera Obscura is subsequent to the Cliff Home constructing, and the carousel is at Yerba Buena Gardens within the south of Market neighborhood.

The Pike/Queen’s Park

The Pike was an amusement park in Lengthy Seashore that opened in 1902 and closed in 1979. It was renamed Queen’s Park within the late Sixties after the RMS Queen Mary arrived to change into a everlasting fixture within the harbor of Lengthy Seashore.

A grisly second occurred simply earlier than the park’s bon voyage: Whereas filming an episode of “The Six Million Greenback Man” in December 1976, a crew member moved what he thought was a model however turned out to be the corpse of Elmer McCurdy, a financial institution robber who was killed in 1911 in a shoot-out with police in Oklahoma. The corpse had heretofore been within the enjoyable home exhibit.

Police have been referred to as and McCurdy’s physique was taken to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s workplace and a forensic anthropologist was referred to as in to make a optimistic identification. McCurdy was subsequently given a correct burial in Oklahoma the next spring.

Pacific Ocean Park

Pacific Ocean Park was way more short-lived than its southern neighbor, lasting solely from July 26, 1958 to Oct. 6, 1967. It straddled the road between Los Angeles and Santa Monica, and was supposed to compete with Disneyland, which had opened in Anaheim in 1955.

The park was a three way partnership between CBS and the Santa Anita Park racetrack. The park was 28 acres and included a merry-go-round, a enjoyable home, a mirror maze, the Westinghouse Enchanted Forest, and Flight to Mars.

The park was additionally used within the filming of episodes of the unique “Twilight Zone,” together with different exhibits that aired on CBS on the time.

Nonetheless, Disneyland received in the long run, as an city renewal mission surrounding the park made it troublesome for folks to get in. The sale of rides and video games have been used to pay the park’s many money owed. The park additionally owed again hire and taxes.

The pier the park sat on lived a ghostly half-life till it was lastly torn down within the mid-Nineteen Seventies after a collection of fires.

Manteca Waterslides

The Manteca Waterslides was a water park in Manteca, in San Joaquin County, from 1974 to 2004. Proper off Interstate 5, it was additionally residence to the Oakwood Lake Amphitheatre live performance venue. The park closed Sept. 26, 2004, with the homeowners citing the rising price of labor.

The location as soon as residence to the waterslides is now, coincidentally, underwater, because of the enlargement of close by Oakwood Lake.

However that wasn’t the top of waterslides in Manteca. Simply final yr, the Great Wolf Lodge opened a 500-room indoor site with 16 waterslides.

Frontier Village

Frontier Village was an amusement park in San Jose from 1961 to 1980. Initially supposed to be inbuilt Sunnyvale alongside the El Camino Actual, it collapsed after the San Jose Metropolis Council voted to solely permit its enlargement if it funded site visitors enhancements within the South Bay. The park additionally started to lose cash after it was sued by neighbors who complained about noise and, mockingly, when it began going through competitors from Nice America, which opened in 1976.

A residential improvement additionally referred to as Frontier Village changed it.

The theme was the Outdated West, and the park included a journey in a horseless carriage, a Ferris wheel, and a canoe journey.