# Touristy things you went to that don't exist any more **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 14, 2026, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073 "2026-05-14T17:32:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/181 "2026-05-16T20:00:38Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Which is most sincerely dead, but a replacement center has been started on the same site and is now (perpetually?) stalled in a half-built state. I forgot that place. It was actually kinda cool in it’s heyday. > [@chela](#): > > Park probably best known as concert venue older sibs saw some GOAT rock bands. Goats playing guitars- imagine that! 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/182 "2026-05-16T20:22:18Z")
Just remeambered, as a mid range school child our class went to Reader, AR, on a field trip. Rode the Reader RR. Went to the gift shop..ate box lunch..played on the playground and rode back to the station. It’s famous for being used in the film _Boxcar Bertha._ And a couple other films about the civil war. I’m seeing Johnny Cash playing John Brown. It escapes me. It’s long gone now. Sad, that was the best field trip ever! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/183 "2026-05-16T20:37:41Z")
Cool cite. I got to SoFL much too late to experience that place. Just a mile-ish from that location a different and later sorta amusement park-lite was built in Dania Beach: > **[Boomers! Parks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomers!_Parks)** > > Boomers Parks (stylized Boomers! until 2018) is a chain of family entertainment centers which feature indoor activities such as carousels, kiddie swings, restaurants, and video game arcades, and outdoor activities such as miniature golf, kiddie rides, bumper boats, batting cages, go-karts, kiddie roller coasters, and laser tag. The Modesto and Irvine locations each have a ride called the Flamethrower. > The first Boomers was opened in 1994 in Boca Raton, Florida by four business men, Joseph Ballar... Right next door was this cool wooden roller coaster: > **[Dania Beach Hurricane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dania_Beach_Hurricane)** > > The Dania Beach Hurricane was a wooden roller coaster next to the former flagship Boomers! amusement park in Dania Beach, Florida, United States. It was designed by the Stand Company and was built by Coaster Works. Built in 2000 at a cost of $4.5 million, it was Florida's third wooden roller coaster. The 3,200 ft (980 m) long out and back coaster reached a top speed of 55 mph (89 km/h). Despite being located next to the Boomers! park, it was operated by a separate entity named Dania Coaster Lim... When I moved to SoFL in 2014 the Boomers! in Dania was breathing its last, while the coaster next door was long dead but still standing and readily visible to all the traffic passing on I-95. Made a good landmark. It was torn down in 2016 to make way for Dania Pointe. A large midmarket outdoor shopping complex mixed with midrise apartment buildings. More housing, more stores, less fun. The entire story of US commerce in my lifetime. Sigh. 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/184 "2026-05-16T20:39:43Z")
I visited the World of Sid & Marty Krofft at the Atlanta Omni Center in 1976. It was on several floors; you entered it by sitting in a giant pinball and getting shot to the top floor. It was there for only a couple years. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/185 "2026-05-16T21:46:57Z")
The first thing to come to mind is kind of the opposite of what is wanted. I was a poor student and went on vacation to Cancun, Mexico. I got a cheap flight but did not book a hotel, thinking the prices in person might be cheaper. The usual fancy resorts were way too expensive for my budget, but there were cheap hotels in the dusty village too far from the water. When I explained my problem to a waiter at a seafood restaurant, he suggested taking the bus to Playa del Carmen. So I did. At the time, it was a few hundred people, one single road along a truly beautiful beach with sand which did not heat up in the sun and gorgeous ocean views. At the bus station, some tout was advertising a beach cabin owned by some local doctor renting for five dollars a day. So I stayed there. A shack on the beach served cheap but delectably grilled fresh seafood and beer. A woman selling coconut water for a few pesos would wander down the beach a few times a day. The sunsets were beautiful, the locals friendly. You could rent a jet ski or scuba dive or go to the _one shop_ selling souvenirs. It was half a paradise. And of course this is long gone. It disappeared within five years of my visit. Playa del Carmen is now another Cancun, all hotels and tourists but less individual character - a place like others. But I haven’t been back. I am sentimental about these things and do not wish to see what it has become. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/186 "2026-05-16T22:38:36Z")
> [@teelabrown](#): > > My family always stopped at Pea Soup Andersen’s restaurant in Buellton, CA when traveling north. It was very touristy, and I think my dad liked it because he could fill the kids up pretty cheaply. But it closed a couple of years ago and is no more. Oh! Closed. My family went there several times. I liked ordering just the “toppings” as my meal (until I found out my family ate most of my meal, as toppings on their own meals). > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > On the topic of bygone Disneyland rides, mention needs to be made of the Tomorrowland Murder Carousel - AKA _Carousel of Progress_ and _America Sings_. I haven’t caught up with the whole thread so apologies if someone has posted this, but: The Disneyland Carousel of Progress was rebuilt in Orlando’s Magic Kingdom. And the America Sings replacement attraction supplied many animatronics for the new 1989 ride Splash Mountain (since rethemed to the 2009 animated movie “The Princess and the Frog” in both D-land and WDW). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/187 "2026-05-17T01:14:59Z")
Does the 1964/5 New York worlds fair count? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/188 "2026-05-17T01:17:00Z")
Arent those designed to be temporary? ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/189 "2026-05-17T04:34:50Z")
I saw the Grateful Dead there… April 1&2 1995. ---
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/190 "2026-05-17T06:14:18Z")
When I was young I enjoyed The Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. It was focused the Great Plains history: mostly from the settler’s perspective, but also a good bit from the Native American side. nice gardens, and good bit of western art - and many exhibits were kid friendly. The building is now branded as **National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.** Some small bits are still along the original lines; but predominantly it has become a high end western art gallery, with the majority of ‘exhibits’ for salle. So it kinds of exists, but the character and focus are vastly different. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/191 "2026-05-17T07:33:04Z")
CNN used to have public tours in the old CNN Center, and I took my children there in spring 2020, just before Covid hit America. My kids and I were back in Georgia in April, and they wanted to go on the tour again, but they are no more. The tours were suspended during Covid, then closed permanently now. There was a tourist area in Yokohama that opened around 2000, and it’s now closed as they are building something else. I’m getting to be the age that I was excited as an adult to see something build, and then it got old. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/192 "2026-05-17T20:49:46Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > [Ports O' Call Village - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ports_O%27_Call_Village) That was a frequent destination for my family. One restaurant specialized in Belgian Waffles, and that’s what we’d always get. (And all restrooms were in little buildings out in the parking lot, which was dashed inconvenient.) > [@JohnGalt](#): > > The **Flintstones Bedrock Village** in Custer South Dakota closed in 2019. It was a good place to go to unwind after visiting Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse carving. It had a little train ride through an Old West town, eventually ending in Bedrock and a bunch of houses and buildings similar to what you’d see in the cartoon. My family visited this during my childhood and I was thrilled. Disneyland featured ‘environments’ but NOT a recreation of a full TV series, as Bedrock Village offered. On some level maybe I wondered if _every_ TV show had a theme park recreation… > [@solost](#): > > Yeah, kids are very jaded these days. When I showed my kids the Movie Jurassic Park when they were around that age, their reaction was “ugh, the CGI is _ **so** _ bad, this movie is unwatchable, dad”. I was well into adulthood when the movie came out, and I thought at the time it was an amazing, towering acheivement in what had been done with early CGI and movie magic to realistically bring dinosaurs back to life (fortunately, just fictionally). When I had been their age, I grew up on Ray Harryhausen animation, and thought it was awesome. I can identify with all that. Though it doesn’t seem to me as though there’s any ‘night and day’ difference between the original JP dinos and those appearing in the more recently-made movies; maybe your kids were just being kid-like. > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I saw that at the science museum in Seattle when I was a kid. I remembered it well. I was disappointed when it went away, and then pleasantly surprised when I moved to Boston and found it at the Museum of Science here. > > At some point I searched the web and found out more about it. Turns out there are multiple copies, and I saw two different ones. If you want to get nostalgic, it’s still on display in Boston, and another copy (according to Wikipedia) in Dearborn, Michigan Very cool about Boston; I’d love to see it again. Mathematica certainly has (deservedly) had a long life. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/193 "2026-05-18T05:15:39Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There was a restaurant in Vacaville, California, called _The Nut Tree_ that I loved as a kid. I came to post this this. Real Low-Rent theme park, but we loved it as kids. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/194 "2026-05-18T09:18:39Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Arent those designed to be temporary? For the fair, sure but Unca Walt built four attractions for the 1964 fair and all four are at least partially active today. - It’s a Small World – relocated to Disneyland and duplicated in other parks. - Carousel of Progress – Relocated to Disneyland then moved again to WDW. - Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln – Relocated to Disneyland. - Ford’s Magic Skyway – Not moved intact but the dinosaur figures were moved to the primeval world diorama on the Disneyland railroad. Plus the ride technology was the basis for the People Mover. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/195 "2026-05-18T11:16:46Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > And, of course, Wonderland, about which our own @CalMeacham has [written the book.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonderland-video/1021575) Bless your title-dropping heart! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/196 "2026-05-18T11:30:08Z")
Lots of places I would have brought up are listed here, particularly Philadelphia’s **Aquarama** (which I went to several times, both on school trips and on our own) and **Freedomland** (which I visited three times). Freedomland was: 1.) Located _inside_ New York City, in the Bronx 2.) Was built in the shape of the United States, with distinct regions like Disneyland 3.) Was actually BIGGER than Disneyland 4,) Was built by the same guy who built Disneyland. Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood. He had a falling out with Walt, and so he’s been erased from Disney History, the same way Stalinist histories “unremember” people. Wood also built a number of other defunct parks, including **Pleasure Island** in Wakefield, Massachusetts, which I never saw, but which lasted a full ten years. **Petrified Creatures** in Warren, NY. At least that’s the location on the pennant I had as a kid. Apparently it was really in Richfield Springs, NY. It was a collection of incredibly bad life-sized plaster-and-chicken wire dinosaur figures that dated from the 1930s. They were painted in unlikely garish colors. There was a glimmer of reason for their being there – a rock shelf inside the property had footprints. When our daughter was very young we vacationed up that way and , to my astonishment, the place was still open. The dinosaurs were in an even worse state of decay, with stacked pallets holding up the T. Rex and the brontosaurus’ absurdly thin and long neck. Everything in the gift shop had a thick coating of dust on it, but I bought a copy of the Nature Golden Guide on Fossils, just to say that I did. The place finally did close for good in 2015 > **[Richfield Springs, NY - Petrified Creatures Museum: Ruins (Closed)](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/967)** > > Visit reports, news, maps, directions and info on Petrified Creatures Museum: Ruins in Richfield Springs, New York. > **[GONE EXTINCT: Inside the Abandoned Petrified Creatures in Richfield Springs](https://wour.com/petrified-creatures/)** > > An exclusive look at the abandoned Petrified Creatures museum in Richfield Springs. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/197 "2026-05-18T11:38:18Z")
Wait a minute…your kids think the FX in the first _Jurassic Park_ are WORSE than the in the sequels? My mind wobbles. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/198 "2026-05-18T12:15:49Z")
I had no idea about Freedomland. I’m a geographer who grew up in the NY metro area, so my first thought was, “where could they have possibly fit something that big in the Bronx? The land must have transformed into something else after it closed…I’m gonna guess Co-op City, that circa-1970 public housing apartment towers complex off of I-95 and the Hutch…” (Checks Wikipedia)…Yup, I guessed correctly. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/199 "2026-05-18T12:17:47Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Wait a minute…your kids think the FX in the first _Jurassic Park_ are WORSE than the in the sequels? My mind wobbles. I don’t think they ever saw the sequels. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073/200 "2026-05-18T12:46:11Z")
That’s one I was going to mention. We took the kids there a few times, and our son would go with his friends when they were home from college. There was an amusement park called Lakeside in Salem, VA outside Roanoke. Their roller coaster was billed as the world’s fastest at one time. I’m not a huge amusement park person, but we went a couple of times when I was a kid. Someone mentioned Carowinds; I wasn’t aware it was still open. The last time I went there was to see Bob Dylan and Steve Earle in 1988. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/touristy-things-you-went-to-that-dont-exist-any-more/1030073.md?page=11)