From wikipedia-
Since 2017, visitors to the site have reported that the creationist material has been removed from the attraction
Good!
Just down Beach Blvd. from Knott’s and the Alligator Farm was Movieland Wax Museum with it’s ridiculously huge sign (the highest in Orange County according to Wikipedia). Outside was a full scale replica of Michelangelo’s David because, well, what brings to mind Hollywood more than Renaissance sculpture? My favorite exhibit was Frankenstein’s monster which was a nighttime scene with a fog machine, thunder, and lightening. I tried to find a photo but they apparently changed the scenery regularly. The museum closed about twenty years ago but it took them forever to tear down the building and that towering sign. For years the building was barely obscured by a Starbucks built on the former parking lot.
I forgot that one.
I went to Roadside America and I remember hearing about its closing later.
I never went there when it was a sports venue but I’ve been there when it was a Bass Pro Shop. But as far as I know, it’s still open as a Bass Pro Shop.
Did you enjoy Kate Smith singing, “God Bless America,” at the end of the “day”? With the Flag and the Statue of Liberty projected on the back wall?
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. Best of all, they had an air-conditioned mini-theater showing old episodes. We were glad to let the kids veg out in front of a TV for awhile, where it was uncongested and cool and quiet.
It wasn’t a major pull for me. I was there to see the miniature houses all laid out in a town.
This reminds me of something similar near to where I am now. There was a guy who was big on model trains and had some money, so he decided to open his own model train store.
It was the kind of place you’d go to even if you had no particular interest in model trains. This guy opened a large store that encompassed several rooms and he had his own model trains and miniature towns spread out on display throughout the store. He had even set up tracks that ran through tunnels in the walls so his trains would make a circuit of the entire building.
But he decided to retire in 2010 and he closed down the store.
The one in Valle AZ is on the verge of extinction. The owners of the property, Raptor Ranch have it on life support in a state of benign neglect.
The big piers in Atlantic City. One thing I especially recall is the diving horse at Steel Pier.
Silver Beach in Benton Harbor, MI. It was a school trip destination for my class.
Deer Park near Muskegon, MI. Later turned into Michigan Adventure amusement park.
Well, aside from the fact that it’s now closed to vehicle traffic and has an LED canopy over it, it’s more or less frozen in amber. (Also there’s a zipline now.)
One of the odd changes that’s happened in Vegas in the past decade or so is that the Sahara closed, was remodeled and reopened as the SLS, one of its towers was spun off into a separate hotel called the W, they both closed again, and then reopened as… the Sahara.
I stayed there when it was the SLS. It was nice. The second night there, the toilet in my room broke and they upgraded me to a honeymoon suite with a mirror on the ceiling and a peephole in the wall that opened into the shower, which was weird.
Outside of Boston there were a number of amusement parks that don’t exist anymore:
- Paragon Park on Nantasket Beach in Hull
- King’s Castle Land in Whitman
- Whalom Park (mentioned above) in Lunenburg
- Lincoln Park in Dartmouth
- Pleasure Island in Wakefield
Lots of restaurants have closed down but a few were destinations with some touristy distinctions:
- The Hilltop Steakhouse in Saugus. The giant cactus sign and plastic cows live on in some of the developments in the area.
- Medieval Manor - at utensil-free establishment offering dinner and a bawdy show for 43 years.
This reminds me that I’ve been to two Playboy Clubs. One in Atlantic City and one in Buffalo. They’re all closed now. (I think the Buffalo one was the last one in operation.)
And, of course, Wonderland, about which our own @CalMeacham has written the book.
Heh. In San Diego in the '90s, “Wonderland” was the name of a MASSIVE video arcade that had something like 200+ machines in an old warehouse, lined up in aisles like it was a grocery store, and the selling point was that the games all took nickels instead of quarters! You had to pay admission to get in (I think it was like $2) and they would kick you out if you were loitering or not actively playing games, but the place was a utopia for kids my age. Mortal Kombat was all the rage at the time and they had an entire wall of machines that people would wait in line to use, so it was constantly PvP. I wasn’t good enough to beat any of the adults I inevitably wound up matched against, but it was nonetheless good fun.
That place must be 20+ years gone now.
I went there once for a Dopefest.
Awesome!
Thank you! I knew I was forgetting one more attraction in that immediate area, but couldn’t dredge it out of my memory sludge. That was it.
Other long-dead SoCal theme shopping venues as tourist attractions:
And the nearby but unrelated
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.
Went a few times as a youngster , steeplechase ride scary as shit, legendary for snake hidey holes.
Park probably best known as concert venue older sibs saw some GOAT rock bands. I was too young.