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Photo TR: Deadwood, An undiscovered park in Bear Grass, NC!!


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Hey everyone,

 

Before I get into the description of this place and the pictures, allow me to share a story. Back when I got my Garmin as a birthday present, I played around with it to see what could be found with the different features. One of the types of places you can find include theme parks, however, many of the places that will come up for beign nearby are your typical FEC's, although it does list the major parks nearby if there are any near your location. From our apartment, the nearest place that comes up is the Greenville Fun Park, which is a slightly run down FEC with go karts. The next place listed is Deadwood, our featured destination which, at the time I checked out the Garmin, I assumed was another regular FEC.

 

Fast forward to a few weekends ago, I went with my older sister Katie and our friend Brandon to checkout the haunted corn field that is put on by some volunteer fire fighters, and I thought it would be cool to see if I could find some other haunted attractions nearby. When I searched the internet, I found a link to the Deadwood Haunted House, I made the connection that this was the same place as what was listed on the Garmin, so I searched Yahoo, and found the Deadwood website.

 

It so happens that Deadwood is actually a small park that was built by a father and son, by the names of Ira and Derek Price, who were former construction workers. The place started as a miniture golf course, and they eventually added other attractions like the Iron Horse Express miniture train, a coin-operated merry-go-round, and the Dinosaur Canyon roller coaster. Deadwood also features a resturant and an ice cream shop. About once a month, the Prices, along with a few others, put on a dinner theater performance about the trial of Jack McCall. While not the largest place in the world, it is certainly a neat place, with a lot of attention to detail made on the part of the Prices in constructing the buildings. According to an article that I had read, they are planning on adding a canoe ride and some sort of a spinning ride (which I have "EXCLUSIVE" construction pictures of).

 

Now in regards to the channeling Big Mike, as many of you know, He had covered many parks that were not listed on Theme Park Review, and I felt that the best way to pay tribute to his contributions was to follow in his footsteps, and share this undiscovered park wtih the TPR crew! I am also going to send links, pics and some info to RCDB as this place is not even listed in the database!

 

For an interesting read or too about the park, here is an article that was featured in Our State Magazine.

 

For my personal experiences at the place, I stopped by for a bit during their Halloween event to check the place out. The resturant was packed, and the place was pretty busy with people wanting to checkout the haunted house and ghost train. I took a ride on the train that night, and it was pretty fun with a lot of random characters walking about to scare the passengers.

 

This past weekend, Melissa and I took Isabella (my older sister's daughter) for a few hours. We took a couple spins on the train, Dinosaur Canyon (Credit #166), some playground time, and a bit of ice cream. In the future, Melissa and I are going to check out the dinner theatre, and the resturant itself.

 

Now that I got all of that out of the way, here are the pictures, and I hope you all enjoy!

 

-Gary "here's to Big Mike" T.

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.....here are the prices to the park's two main attractions! Thanks for checking it out, hope you all enjoyed!

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And while the road would be a fitting end to a normal Gary made Photo TR, this is partially in tribute of Big Mike, so...............

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....and one more

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.........................

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And a few shots from the parking lot........

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Running across the bridge

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She could be training for American Gladiators at a young age, you never know!

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Tire Swing!

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They also have a very well done playground right next to the resturant. How many resturants that are not in the fast food sector can you think of that have playgrounds right outside?

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The miniture golf course, how this place got its start

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And beside that is the work in progress for the canoe ride

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Here is the work in progress for the spinning ride, located next to Dinosaur Canyon

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Random gnomes in a tub

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As seen from the Caboose

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Riding the Caboose!

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Izzy B with Aunt Melissa!

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Izzy B rides the Merry Go Round

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Ready to go!

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Izzy B and I are waiting for our turn.

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You can also go to the other side, and take a spin on the Dinosaur Canyon roller coaster

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Once you leave the Ice Cream shop, the kids can take a ride on the mini merry-go-round

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...and comic books!

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In the gift shop, you can get a Deadwood t shirt.......

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Izzy B having some strawberry ice cream

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Another view of the ice cream shop, arcade, and gift shop

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The ice cream shop

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Some of the really well done buildings

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The outside of the resturant

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Just through the side doors, you will find the resturant

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Here is the stage where the show takes place

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When you enter, you are greeted by this sign

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This is the building that houses "The Trial of Jack McCall" dinner show

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........like Greenville

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They have this neat sign that shows the distances to other places.........

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Iron Horse Express

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During the haunted train ride, this dude eats people!!!!!!

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Of course where there are aliens, there are UFOs nearby!

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and Aliens (left overs from the Haunted Train)

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More random things on the train route, like tipis

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Izzy B loved the train!

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One the train, you can see many random statues, such as this pig

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If only they were all called that

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This is the general central area of Deadwood, from the train

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As am I with Isabella

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Melissa is ready for a ride on the Iron Horse Express

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Welcome to Deadwood

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When you arrive to the parking lot, you pass by this building.

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So here we are at Deadwood, located in Bear Grass, NC. About half an hour from our apartment in Greenville.

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Big Mike gives Gary a standing ovation for such an outstanding trip report!!!

 

Big Mike bows down to Gary for finding a brand new coaster to go check out!!!

 

Big Mike salutes Gary for being cool and dedicating it to Big Mike LOL.

 

 

Awesome job my friend! I love how Izzy was having so much fun, that was really nice to see!

 

Looks like another stop for The Big Mike Road Show to hit soon

 

 

Thanks again for the very nice shout out, but you definately outdid my Road Show since I have never found a totally out of the blue coaster yet!!!

 

I commend, congratulate, and thank you all at once as you made all The Valuable Big Mike Readers proud indeed!!!

 

It is a wonderful thing to see the love for the Road Show, it makes the off season much easier to live through lol.

 

 

See you in 2009 hopefully Gary!

 

 

Peace, Big Mike

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I appreciate the compliments!

 

I would have to say that finding this place was like Christopher Columbus discovering the New World..........While Chris and I didn't know it, these places did exist, we just happen to be the ones to brag about finding it!

 

If the Big Mike Road Show makes a stop sometime to check it out, I would love to be there to witness the Roadshow's first stop ever in Eastern North Carolina!!!

 

*UPDATE* - Deadwood is now listed on RCDB here

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How far away is this from Ghost Town in the Sky?

 

Ghost Town is actually in Maggie Valley in the mountains and Deadwood is in the Coastal Plains region, which is on the other side of the state. I would guess that it is a 6 hour drive or so. I would bet that the closest major park is Busch Gardens Europe.

 

Ginzo: If I recall, I believe that the dinner show is one that has been performed in Deadwood, South Dakota for a good while. While most of the park is based on the town of Deadwood, the section with the Roller Coaster, and where the two rides that are being built is based on the Badlands, where you can find all sorts of fossils.

 

-Gary T.

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The sign near the roller coaster, I forgot to post it before, but this is where you get to the area with the roller coaster, and the two rides under construction.

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Makes me kind of wonder how many parks like this are out there with a little coaster that we don't know about.

 

I heard a rumor from someone (who has since left this site) that there is a kiddie coaster in Connecticut that he has ridden but he will not tell RCDB about.

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Carolinacaniac you deserve a TPR award, the Christopher Columbus of credit whores - we all humbly bow.

 

It does look a lot like High Speed Thrill Coaster, which was my 300th and last new credit, I meant it to be Phoenix but due to an accountancy error it was 299.

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I went to a wedding back at that place when I was in college at Barton, the real school in Eastern NC!

 

Back then, about 10 years ago, it looked like the place was heading for doom, but I'm glad to see that it's up and running. It's sad to say, but that's probably the most exciting place to visit in the area! Even, The City on The Rise, Rocky Mount, can't compete with this!

 

Great TR and pics.

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^Come on now, just because ECU has the party school rep.....

 

There are a few things for tourists to do in this region, such as Kitty Hawk with the Wright Brothers Memorial and the Outer Banks. The problem however is that most of the tourism for Eastern North Carolina is condensed to the coast, and not a whole lot of it spreads to the rest of the coastal plains region (Theoretically, that is pretty much anywhere east of I-95). There are some neat things to see in other places, like the Town of Bath were the pirate Blackbeard lived, and in New Bern you can see the building where Pepsi was created, but these don't exactly draw a lot of people.

 

Deadwood has a pretty good following, but I believe most of their visitors are local. I am a bit surprised that they don't advirtise over here in Greenville, as I am sure they could draw some people looking for a nice day out with the family. Perhaps this thread will help attract some extra visitors to get the Dinosaur Canyon credit!

 

-Gary T.

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