Williams Grove Amusement Park
Williams Grove Amusement Park is/was a family-oriented amusement park near Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The park operated from 1850 until 2005. It is standing but not operating. The owners still live there and are trying to preserve the park and the historic buildings on the property but face frequent vandalism.
History
The Williams family began hosting picnics in 1850 in a small grove located in the village of Williams Grove outside Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The grove would within a few years grow into a park. Within two decades the park had grown into the Mechanicsburg Fairgrounds. After World War I, the park's ownership changed hands several times. In 1928, the first rides appeared at the park. The adjacent Williams Grove Speedway half-mile track opened in 1938.[1]
Morgan Hughes purchased the park in 1972 for $1.2 million. Many of the rides were relocated to Williams Grove from the defunct New Jersey's Palisades Amusement Park, which closed in 1972. Williams Grove Park was nearly destroyed in the summer of the same year due to Hurricane Agnes and the subsequent flooding from nearby Yellow Breeches Creek. The park was rebuilt and operated until the end of the 2005 season, when the Hughes family decided to focus all of their energies on Williams Grove Speedway. Morgan Hughes, who was in his mid-80s when the park closed, attempted to sell the property in 2006 to a prospective owner who would keep the park intact and operational, but was unable to find a buyer. The rides were auctioned off the same year. Hughes died in his sleep at his Pennsylvania home on April 12, 2008 at age 88.[2]
Rides
Roller Coasters
The Cyclone Roller Coasters was the main ride attraction at the park. It was a wooden roller coaster with height of 65 feet high and the top speed of 45 mph and the ride duration of 1 minute and 30 seconds. It was built as The Zipper in 1933. Palisades Amusement Park Cyclone cars were added in 1972, hence the name change. Unfortunately the Cyclone closed after the 2005 season, leaving it standing but not operational, abandoned and in disrepair with the train parked at the loading station. The cars have since been returned to Fort Lee, NJ, where they will be displayed at a museum.
In the early 1980s the park erected The Wildcat, a steel Wildcat-style roller coaster. Upon the park's closing, the Wildcat was relocated to Adventure Park USA in New Market, Maryland.
The park had two smaller coasters, Kiddie Coaster, 1992 until closing, and the Little Dipper, 1950 until 1963.
Fun Houses
There were two funhouses, a walk-through and a dark ride style ride-through.
Water Slides
In the early 1980s, the park erected one of the first water slides in the area.
References
- ↑ coastergallery.com/
- ↑ http://www.williamsgrove.com/
http://www.themeparkreview.com/wgrove/wgrove.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE9OlnQJ_4I - epic urby exy
External links
Coordinates: 40°09′04″N 77°02′02″W / 40.151°N 77.034°W