Bull's Old Park Photos, and other random stuff

This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time now, but just finally got around to doing it. I am a long time reader of the TPR, but very rarely post. I have a ton of pictures and other random stuff that I plan on sharing in the next few weeks After going through old family pictures, I realized I had a lot of stuff that people here might enjoy. Some of these pictures were taken by myself, my parents, and even some from my grand parents, so that should give you an idea of how old they are. I could be posting soon, what might be the oldest amateur park photography on TPR, but we will have to save that for a later update.

But for today, what I have is pictures of Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Va. around what I think was 1990-1991. I would have been around 12 years old at the time. They main reason I am posting these first, is because this park, and the Loch Ness Monster is what got me really interested in coasters. You will see most of my pictures are of the Loch Ness Monster. I remember just standing there watching the coaster go through the interlocked loops. For some reason it just amazed me! However, I never did ride any of the coasters that day, or have yet to return more than 15 years later to do so, but one day I will. Up until this time, the only coaster I think I was on was the Blue Streak at Conneaut Lake Park, which I have many pictures of coming soon.

These photos were taken by me, with a cheap Kodak point an click camera, but I still think they came out fairly well. They are scanned from 35mm negatives, that were not stored well, so the color is off on some of them, and there are a few scratches here and there. Call me crazy, but I still love film, and still take a lot of pictures on film, it drives my wife crazy, but thats ok.

Please forgive me if I make any mistakes, because this is my first shot at posting photos. Also, if you have any questions, ask. I will try to update it ever few days with new, old stuff!

And to finish this update off, a random turtle in the lake at Busch Gardens.

A bad angle of the log flume, but I still added it because you can see a little.

The log flume, also not sure what the official name of the ride is.

from a different area of the auto ride.

Again

The load/unload area.

Another shot of the same ride. Some bad color though.

The auto ride, not sure what the official name of it is.

A closer shot of a train going through the loop. I thought this one came out well, being a cheap camera and all.

I remember standing there waiting to get a picture of the train going through the loop.

Yet again, with a little better color.

Another shot from basically the same angle.

The Loch Ness Monster in all it's glory, and the sky ride. Is the sky ride still there???

Is this the main entrance? I can not remember.

Very nice "historical" looking photos. And yes the sky ride is still there, although the old cars have been removed for the Griffon Roller Coaster.

Amazing pics! The log flume looks so empty without Alpengeist. Do you have any pics of Drachen Fire?

Cool pics. The park looks kind of similar to how it looks now. Sure it looks kind of empty, but same theme, landscaping, rides, etc.

The sky ride is still there. I rode it when there with TPR last summer.

I believe the car ride was replaced by Griffon.

Nice pictures!

Thanks for the pics!

The Sky Ride is still there--which is just one reason why Busch Gardens Williamsburg remains awesome. The car ride was "Le Mans Raceway," and was really good. Unfortunately* it was removed for Griffon.

*Only "unfortunate" in the sense that I'd prefer to have both.

Thanks to every one who replied. Glad to hear the Sky Ride is still there.

Ahh Yes, the Le Mans Raceway, that rings a bell now that you mention it! Sucks to hear it is gone. Car rides are always cool rides for families, which is important to me now that I have a little one.

Speeddeamon128, sorry, no pictures of Drachen Fire, not sure if I did not take any, or if they got lost somewhere.

I am now working on my next update, hope to have it up today or tomorrow.

About 15 pictures of Disney Land from the early 60s. I would say 1961 if I had to guess.

I know the colour in the photos helps to age them and adds a certain nostalgia to them. But if you want to try and sort them out for your own memories, try downloading the trail for Adobe Lightroom 2 (I am fairly certain you can get a fully functioning time limited trial)

I managed to do some good restorations of some photos from the 40's for a friend of mine.

Sorry to go off topic.

Back on topic.

Awesome photos, I love looking at things like this!

Andrew

AndyUK, thanks for the tip on the Adobe Program, I will have to check it out. My wife is very good at touching up photos, and has done a few of my family pictures with GREAT results, but it was very time consuming, because they were in bad shape. I have some photos that are well over 100 years old now, some even on tin!

Log Flume = Le Scoot but everybody just calls it the Log Ride

Those pics are awesome! It's really strange seeing LNM and the log ride without the B&Ms overhead. I was kinda disappointed that Le Mans was removed for Griffon since it was an original ride and very popular.

Thanks for sharing!

Time for another update. This one will be Disneyland, from what I think was 1961, well before my time! My grandparents took these pictures. These were taken on 35mm slides using Kodakchrome film, so they for the most part have stood the test of time. Some have a few scratches though, but the color seem real good on most of them. I know there are probably a few youngsters out there who have no idea what slides are!

I am not going to be able to caption too much, being as I was not there, or even thought of at that time, and I have not been to Disneyland for almost 10 years.

I look forward to everyones questions/comments, and have more stuff on the way!

The Train

Main Street, Is that what they call it in Disneyland also, I forget?

Entrance to Adventure Land! Notice the sign, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room!

Again

Train scenery

This was in with the Disneyland slides, but I am not 100% sure it is. Did Disneyland have horse rides at one time?

Hello!

I must have been really tired, or drunk when I scanned this, because I have no idea why I scanned it sideways! Has some scratches on it also. Someday I will try to find that slide again, and rescan it, but I have 1000s of slides to go through.

Is this the River Boat?

I think this was called Indian Village or something like that, not real sure.

Same as above, different shot

Some kind of hover craft bumper car ride. For some reason I think I have rode a ride like this before, but not at Disneyland. Once again, I could be completely loosing it!

The submarine ride, I know there was still something like this at Disney World up until about 10 years ago. I do not think it is at Disney World, not sure about Disneyland though. Or maybe I am completely confused, let me know!

The parking lot, notice all of the vintage cars! I love it, as old cars are one of my other hobbies!

Pictures of the Flying Saucers! That should get some Disney nerds foaming at the mouth!

Not that I would know any......

That was realy cool

Ahhh yes, the Flying Saucers, I knew somewhere I read about that being the name of the ride, thanks for letting me know! I also did not know until you mentioned it, and I did a little searching, how short the ride lasted at Disneyland! It looks like it only lasted about 5 years because of maintenance and throughput!

My Partner is going to scream when he sees those pics- he's a BIG DisneyPhile- and those are some he's going to love seeing- Great job!

You should really consider making copies of these pics and sending them to Yesterland! I'm sure they'll love them as much as I loved seeing them!

-Tatum

OK, time for another update, Conneaut Lake Park, around 1960. The pictures I am posting today came from 35mm slides. These would have been slides that were purchased at the park, in strips of four. I am sure that anyone who traveled up until about 20-25 years ago will remember these. Just about every tourist destination had them! I actually bought the original display for these slides that used to sit in the gift shop on E-Bay. So from these slides haveing light on them 24X7, and I am sure no being well taken care of, the color is almost non existent. I was trying to decided weather or not to even post them, because they are not that great, but I figured people would enjoy the scenery, even if the color is WAY bad! Let me know what you think, I will describe everything the best I can. I have much better quality pictures coming in an update soon, I just don't have them all scanned yet.

Once again, sorry for the crappy color, but I figured it was better than nothing. Should have more soon!

Last one for today, Boats on the lake.

The Ferris Wheel and Scrambler, near the Dodgem's. The Music Express is now sitting where the Scrambler was.

Kiddieland, My favorite growing up! If you look in the background, you can see the lift of the Blue Streak!

View from the lake. You can see what is now the Beach Club, and the Down Under Bar. Also in the background, you can see the old part of the lower midway.

The main midway. The right side of the picture still looks mostly the same, but unfortunately, The left now looks very much different because of the fire a few years back that claimed Dreamland!

The Jungle Cruise. It used to be in the moat, or swamp that you see from the Blue Streak. In fact, if you look close enough you can see the Blue Streak through the trees. It closed sometime in the early 80s.

An areal view of the park.

The miniature train, once again, I have a better picture of this coming. Also, the picnic groves in the back ground. The train now run the opposite direction now, than it did in this picture.

Hotel Conneaut! What a beautiful structure in my opinion, and so much history! My wife and I got married here, so it is special to us! I hope it and the park can somehow find a way to make it at least another hundred years!

The beach full of people! There were some sliding boards in the water, and in later years the Water Rampage was where the pier is now.

Another one the quality is quite bad on. This is the mini-golf course. It used to be down where the stage is now, near the lake. You can see the old midway buildings that were tore down in the early 90s in the back groud.

The famous Blue Streak! My first coaster! Boy how I miss this ride! I remember standing in line as a little kid, amazed even then at how they ran two trains at one time, and watching the operators pulling and pushing the huge levers, ahhh the memories.

Skiing on the Lake

The park owned the Golf Course on the other side of the road at one time. I played the course the morning I got married, and it was a fun course. It has since been sold and closed.

This is probably about the worst quality of all of them. This is in front of the convention center. The Whip and the Flying Scooters. I remember the Whip well, loved it, got a better picture of it in another update coming soon. Across the Street would be the Dodgem's and the Wild Mouse.

This is the old Giant Slide that used to be in the park, it would be where the water slides are sitting now. I believe it was called the Astro Slide, or something like that. The building that you see beside the slide I believe was the cuddle up, then converted to the Pit Of Death, and I believe is the same building now used for the bath house for the water park.

The old photos, even with sun damage, are great. Keep posting them.

Of course I'm partial to seeing how parks used to look as I'm in the middle of a Retro PTR myself covering the 1970s.

Retro Amusement Park PTR from the 1970s

EXCELLENT!!!! Wow what a great find these are, and thanks for taking the time to scan, post and share them with all of us. I for one LOVE to see these great old photos from personal collections.

Montezooma and Larrygator, thanks for the compliments, you two guys are the ones that finally got my ass in gear to get these up. I have been loving the amusement attic, and the retro trip report threads!

Some of what I have coming is more Conneaut Lake Park, and Fairy Land Forest, Disney World for the 80s, Hershey, some small parks, and Kennywood from the 40s and 50s!!!! I was stunned when I found those! I also have some post cards and park maps to scan, including the elusive Williams Grove Park map!

Even if people don't respond to your thread, they are viewing, so keep on posting.

You mentioned that you rode something similar to the old Disneyland hover crafts. I know one park where I have ridden a modern version is LaRonde.

Time for another update! This is the part of Conneaut Lake Park that I have never seen pictures of on TPR, Fairyland Forest! These pictures are from the 1960s, and once again, the color is horrible. I promise, from here on out, the quality will be much better! Anyway, Fairyland Forest was across the street from the main park, and featured the nursery rhyme characters, and live animals. Most of the buildings are still there, and reused for Camperland, which now sits on the land once used for Fairyland Forest.

Sections of the park like this must have been popular in the 60s. LeSourdsville lake had one, And of course Idlewild, which still exists today, and I am sure there were many more.

Thanks for looking!

An overview of the park

Ali Baba

Humpty Dumpty

There was an old lady that lived in a shoe!

I think this was the entrance to the petting zoo

Jonah and the Whale

The Three Little Pigs

Noah's Arc

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

A place to feed bears from a safe distance. I am sure this probably would not fly in todays society, and PETA would be all over it! The sign said "To feed, pull can down, put feed in can, tell bear to Pull up, Pull up!

Mary's house I guess.

Ducks and Geese in the pond

The Easter Egg tree

Kids having fun on the sliding board. I can not remember what rhyme this was themed after.

Deer in the petting zoo

The entrance, notice the cars of the 60s

Those are amazing pics, regardless of the color. I believe for LeSourdville/Americana you are referring to Fantasy Farm. It was a seperate park that was a different admission. But thanks for the pics, they are great, keep posting!!

Time for another small CLP update I have more CLP stuff, but will have to get it scanned. I might post my Kennywood photos next, but for now this is what I have.

I have some shots from the 1960s, that were taking on 35mm slides, that are not too bad, one is a bid dark, but I will still post it.

The newer pictures were taken with a cheap 110 Kodak instant camera, and are pretty good, considering the cheap camera, and age of them. These would be from the early 80s. The park was jammed packed with rides in those days. Everywhere there was a spot, they had a ride!

And the last picture of today, a newspaper clipping from 1995, the parks financial problems have been going on for years, it is not a new thing!

The stage down by the beach. Sorry for the dark picture, but you can see part of the old midway in the background.

One of the ferry boats on the lake. Sorry for the black boarder on the slide.

A beach seen from the 60s. Also notice the two ferry boats docked by the beach club.

My brother and I in the Whip, there really should be more of these around than there are. Not like the ones at Hershey, but the old ones, that really Whipped you around. The Yo-Yo is in the background, it may have been brand new that year. I used to ride this over and over, loved it!

A kiddyland ride, some kind of rocket ship ride. I remember the little guns actually made some kind of sound. Yup, thats me in the back of the rocket!

Another angle, I remember jumping in the big burlap bags, and flying down this thing!

The Astro Slide, man I loved that thing, I think because it was one of the first "Big" rides I was able to ride in the park. Sorry for the scanner boarder, I should have cropped that one a little better.

This is the old Train station, they were fake buildings. As I think I said before, the train ran the opposite direction in those days. Also, part of the fry stand that is still at the park can be seen in the left corner.

Montezooma and Larrygator, thanks for the compliments, you two guys are the ones that finally got my a$$ in gear to get these up. I have been loving the amusement attic, and the retro trip report threads!

 

Some of what I have coming is more Conneaut Lake Park, and Fairy Land Forest, Disney World for the 80s, Hershey, some small parks, and Kennywood from the 40s and 50s!!!! I was stunned when I found those! I also have some post cards and park maps to scan, including the elusive Williams Grove Park map!

Great stuff! Most of the stuff I have is from the early years of theme parks or industry related. I wasn't really aware of the smaller parks around the country so I really enjoy seeing your collection