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A World Tour of Abandoned Amusement Parks

66 points by fortran77 4y ago

EricE 4y ago
Atlas Obscura is an awesome resource - and a great way to discover lots of interesting things around you that you may not even be aware of!
drewcoo 4y ago
Where's Li'l Abner's "Dogpatch USA?" https://abandonedar.com/dogpatch-usa/ https://abandonedar.com/dogpatch-usa/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch_USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch_USA Li'l Abner is where the Skonkworks originated, later "Skunk Works" when used by Lockheed Martin used the idea. Li'l Abner and Pogo were both edgy anti-authoritarian cartoons worth remembering.
gscott 4y ago
Not big enough to make it onto Atlas Obscura but in El Cajon California (San Diego County) https://hiddensandiego.com/things-to-do/places/marshall-scotties https://hiddensandiego.com/things-to-do/places/marshall-scot... still intact they tried to open the Go Kart track a few years ago but the church next door put in a tremendous number of noise complaints getting the effort shut down.
- bionsystem 4y ago
  Ironic because churches around here ring their bells every hour from 8AM every day.
nonrandomstring 4y ago
Ghost hunting in the Mystery Machine anyone?
philliphaydon 4y ago
Hm I can’t scroll any of the photos on my phone. :/ not a good user experience for mobile.
canadiantim 4y ago
I grew up when Taman festival was being built and it actually was open for a year or so. My brothers and sister and I had free roam of the place. It was effectively our own giant amusement park because almost no one else was ever there. They had a giant reptile petting zoo (with the hungry crocs below of course) and we’d always go there. They were so ambitious at time of opening, talk about building a semi underwater hotel, zero gravity roller coaster, etc. they actually did start on that roller coaster but never finished. You can prly still finds parts of it gathering dust. Pretty sure it was all a giant money laundering operation. It was a really bizarre location to build a giant theme park. I mean we had just finished building a house in the middle of nowhere (pedang galak, an area known more for black magic competitions and poisonous snakes). It bordered on a river / jungle. Hard to emphasize how not ideal of a location it was for a giant theme park. Cool for us though
tezza 4y ago
If they ever make it to Australia, they should check out Leyland Brothers’ World in northern NSW. Although TIL the Uluru/Ayres Rock appears to have been lost to fire in 2018 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_Brothers_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_Brothers_World
Janiya 4y ago
1shooner 4y ago
>The adult Atlantis dolphins had been performing in captivity for almost a decade, and the captive-born juveniles had never hunted in the wild. They all needed to be shown how to hunt for fish. While some of the dolphins responded immediately, the captive-born dolphins “seemed to treat the exercise as a game and would often all chase the same fish, competing more with each other than actually showing any ability to forage” according to researcher Kelly Waples. Somehow that's uncomfortably familiar.
CubsFan1060 4y ago
There is a long-form YouTube channel (DefunctLand) that has a lot of content about closed amusement parks and rides. It's a very good channel. Just an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fec3jhPGTwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fec3jhPGTwY
- eej71 4y ago
  I'd also recommend Bright Sun Films https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqsPF8dx1GU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqsPF8dx1GU
- registeredcorn 4y ago
  I'm not sure if it's still active, but early on in the series, the intention was also to create a VR Park of all of the defunct rides that he was covering: https://defunctland.com/vr-park/ https://defunctland.com/vr-park/ That webpage states it's still being worked on, but the page is not accessible unless you find it through a search engine.
- kalleboo 4y ago
  Expedition Theme Park is also a pretty good channel on the subject https://www.youtube.com/c/ExpeditionThemePark https://www.youtube.com/c/ExpeditionThemePark (although Defunctland is in a class of it's own with some of his videos, Fast Pass is a masterpiece)
egeozcan 4y ago
Not an amusement park per se, but Naturland in Çamyuva/Antalya/Turkey is also an interesting case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UboqmAiAAQA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UboqmAiAAQA
Phurist 4y ago
The theme seems to be similar: a park was built once -> lot of people used it -> repairs/maintenance was not done or was not done enough -> park got dangerous due to neglect -> less people visit it -> park gets closed down I wonder what could be done differently
- lmm 4y ago
  If something is literally a novelty, there's an inherent boom-and-bust dynamic to that. Travelling fairs are one alternative for places that don't have enough demand to sustain a permanent amusement park, but those have their own issues.
nibbleshifter 4y ago
The guy who owns Spreepark in Berlin tends to be rather hostile to visitors, and has 24/7 security on site. I'm not sure how often he pursues prosecutions against people caught trespassing. Made visiting a lot more fun, avoiding them.
- polycaster 4y ago
  Apparently there are plans to revive it. https://www.spreepark.berlin/en/ https://www.spreepark.berlin/en/
thcipriani 4y ago
I was hoping I'd find Wichita's Joyland[0]—since it closed it's inspired many new urban explorers. [0]: <https://www.abandonedspaces.com/parks/joyland-amusement-park.html https://www.abandonedspaces.com/parks/joyland-amusement-park...>
polycaster 4y ago
Reminds me of Dismaland. https://dismaland.co.uk/ https://dismaland.co.uk/
aliqot 4y ago
No Decentraland? Too soon?

66 points by fortran77 4y ago

Atlas Obscura is an awesome resource - and a great way to discover lots of interesting things around you that you may not even be aware of!

drewcoo 4y ago

Where's Li'l Abner's "Dogpatch USA?" https://abandonedar.com/dogpatch-usa/ https://abandonedar.com/dogpatch-usa/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch_USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch_USA Li'l Abner is where the Skonkworks originated, later "Skunk Works" when used by Lockheed Martin used the idea. Li'l Abner and Pogo were both edgy anti-authoritarian cartoons worth remembering.

gscott 4y ago

Not big enough to make it onto Atlas Obscura but in El Cajon California (San Diego County) https://hiddensandiego.com/things-to-do/places/marshall-scotties https://hiddensandiego.com/things-to-do/places/marshall-scot... still intact they tried to open the Go Kart track a few years ago but the church next door put in a tremendous number of noise complaints getting the effort shut down.

bionsystem 4y ago
Ironic because churches around here ring their bells every hour from 8AM every day.

nonrandomstring 4y ago

Ghost hunting in the Mystery Machine anyone?

philliphaydon 4y ago

Hm I can’t scroll any of the photos on my phone. :/ not a good user experience for mobile.

canadiantim 4y ago

I grew up when Taman festival was being built and it actually was open for a year or so. My brothers and sister and I had free roam of the place. It was effectively our own giant amusement park because almost no one else was ever there. They had a giant reptile petting zoo (with the hungry crocs below of course) and we’d always go there. They were so ambitious at time of opening, talk about building a semi underwater hotel, zero gravity roller coaster, etc. they actually did start on that roller coaster but never finished. You can prly still finds parts of it gathering dust. Pretty sure it was all a giant money laundering operation. It was a really bizarre location to build a giant theme park. I mean we had just finished building a house in the middle of nowhere (pedang galak, an area known more for black magic competitions and poisonous snakes). It bordered on a river / jungle. Hard to emphasize how not ideal of a location it was for a giant theme park. Cool for us though

tezza 4y ago

If they ever make it to Australia, they should check out Leyland Brothers’ World in northern NSW. Although TIL the Uluru/Ayres Rock appears to have been lost to fire in 2018 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_Brothers_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_Brothers_World

Janiya 4y ago

1shooner 4y ago

>The adult Atlantis dolphins had been performing in captivity for almost a decade, and the captive-born juveniles had never hunted in the wild. They all needed to be shown how to hunt for fish. While some of the dolphins responded immediately, the captive-born dolphins “seemed to treat the exercise as a game and would often all chase the same fish, competing more with each other than actually showing any ability to forage” according to researcher Kelly Waples. Somehow that's uncomfortably familiar.

CubsFan1060 4y ago

There is a long-form YouTube channel (DefunctLand) that has a lot of content about closed amusement parks and rides. It's a very good channel. Just an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fec3jhPGTwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fec3jhPGTwY

eej71 4y ago
I'd also recommend Bright Sun Films https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqsPF8dx1GU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqsPF8dx1GU
registeredcorn 4y ago
I'm not sure if it's still active, but early on in the series, the intention was also to create a VR Park of all of the defunct rides that he was covering: https://defunctland.com/vr-park/ https://defunctland.com/vr-park/ That webpage states it's still being worked on, but the page is not accessible unless you find it through a search engine.
kalleboo 4y ago
Expedition Theme Park is also a pretty good channel on the subject https://www.youtube.com/c/ExpeditionThemePark https://www.youtube.com/c/ExpeditionThemePark (although Defunctland is in a class of it's own with some of his videos, Fast Pass is a masterpiece)

egeozcan 4y ago

Not an amusement park per se, but Naturland in Çamyuva/Antalya/Turkey is also an interesting case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UboqmAiAAQA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UboqmAiAAQA

Phurist 4y ago

The theme seems to be similar: a park was built once -> lot of people used it -> repairs/maintenance was not done or was not done enough -> park got dangerous due to neglect -> less people visit it -> park gets closed down I wonder what could be done differently

lmm 4y ago
If something is literally a novelty, there's an inherent boom-and-bust dynamic to that. Travelling fairs are one alternative for places that don't have enough demand to sustain a permanent amusement park, but those have their own issues.

nibbleshifter 4y ago

The guy who owns Spreepark in Berlin tends to be rather hostile to visitors, and has 24/7 security on site. I'm not sure how often he pursues prosecutions against people caught trespassing. Made visiting a lot more fun, avoiding them.

polycaster 4y ago
Apparently there are plans to revive it. https://www.spreepark.berlin/en/ https://www.spreepark.berlin/en/

thcipriani 4y ago

I was hoping I'd find Wichita's Joyland[0]—since it closed it's inspired many new urban explorers. [0]: <https://www.abandonedspaces.com/parks/joyland-amusement-park.html https://www.abandonedspaces.com/parks/joyland-amusement-park...>

polycaster 4y ago

Reminds me of Dismaland. https://dismaland.co.uk/ https://dismaland.co.uk/

aliqot 4y ago

No Decentraland? Too soon?