Rocky Springs Park Lancaster PA. #1 (From Dick Flint)

Rocky Springs Park Lancaster PA001, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Lancaster, Pennsylvania's Rocky Springs Amusement Park was auctioned in mid-July 1984. The three-day sale included a number of approximately 59x90-inch banners such as the two shown here along with another showing a "Giant Chacma" that was by Baker-Lockwood of Kansas City, Missouri. I can only assume that they are part of a show Art Elridge had at the park for a season. The park developed around a hotel built just before the Civil War and situated on the Conestoga River in an area called Rocky Springs. Long a picnic ground under various innkeepers, it was sold in 1899 to a Pittsburgh businessman who soon brought in such rides as a figure-8 roller coaster as well as building a large auditorium for vaudeville acts. The park closed in 1966 and sat empty for several years until sold to new owners who reopened the park in 1979 and 1980 after which the park was closed for good. The 1925 Dentzel menagerie carousel was not part of the sale but was retained by a granddaughter who moved it to Michigan before leasing it to DollyWood where it operated throughout the 1990s. A Lancaster citizens group raised money to buy the carousel and bring it back to the Pennsylvania city where efforts are still underway to find a downtown home for this glorious Dentzel ride. Dick Flint Baltimore