Well, it’s been some time since we were last in the Adirondacks, but we’re back. You might remember my episodes on Magic Forest (still operational, with some changes) and Time Town (long gone) back in the single digit episodes of TAC. Well, here we are, all the way in episode 25, back again in upstate NY, back in Lake George, this time to talk about a shining gem of the past. Lake George Ride and Fun Park / Lake George Action Park.Transition from Gaslight Village to Lake George Ride and Fun Park.People Are What Make Gaslight Village Special.Preparing the Site for Gaslight Village in Lake George, NY.Pottersville and the First Gaslight Village.Let’s go back to a time of cool summer nights, brightly lit rides glowing in the twilight, music spilling out from the speakers and the shows at the Opera House. To start today’s story, you need to know about the man behind it all: Charles R. Wood, dubbed by the IAAPA (the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) as the “grandfather of the American theme park”. Born in 1914, Charles was an entrepreneur who made his own opportunities. He started out his investments at a young age – he bought two houses at the age of thirteen, unthinkable and impossible in today’s world a century later. As he became an adult, he worked in aviation as an aircraft technician throughout World War II.Īfter the war, it was an article in Reader’s Digest, of all things, that planted the seeds for his future in the amusement industry. See, Charles read about the Knotts and their berry farm over in California. An article in Reader’s Digest led him to Southern California to see Knott’s Berry Farm. “I fell in love with what he had done,” says Charley. Knott had created the boysenberry, and Mrs. Knott cooked chicken and made boysenberry pie. I came back full of beans and wanted to get into the amusement business.” Knott built a chapel and a volcano to entertain people while they waited for the dinner. The story goes that Wood visited Albany, NY after seeing an ad for a skating rink for sale. The rink deal fell through, but he saw an ad locally for some land about 60 miles north, up in Lake George. When he asked for directions, he was told to take Route 9 north. As he later said, “It was just so pretty,” says Charley. “And I could just see nothing but opportunities.” It was a fateful trip. Some consider Wood the pioneer of the tourism concept in Lake George. He started by purchasing property near Schroon Lake (30 minutes north of Lake George) and developed a resort there called Arrowhead Lodge. Originally called Erlowest, it was a Queen Anne-style stone castle that Wood developed into Holiday House, right on Bolton Road in Lake George, now called Sun Castle. After years of development with these two summer resorts, Wood saw an opportunity. He’d realized something important about his audience – they were looking for more than just summer basics like tennis and boating. The resort wasn’t fulfilling enough for the guests. In 1954, then, a year before Disneyland opened, Charles Wood invested $75,000 in five acres of land off Route 9 between Lake George and Glen Falls. It was called Storytown USA, themed after Mother Goose stories, and is generally considered one of the first true theme parks in the US. We’ll get into the history of Storytown in another episode, but without a doubt, Storytown was a success.
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