Abandoned

There is just something really weird, sad, and beautiful about a abandoned amusement park. Remember way back when and I blogged about dead malls? Yeah this is sort of the same thing except on a bigger scale.

It started last night when I was finding plans for a Jubilation T. Cornpone statue for Thing 2 to build out of paper machete. I came across the Dogpatch amusement park. I read the history of it and how much it had stacked against it but it worked for a couple of decades anyway, opening in 1968 and closing in 1993.

I saw pictures of what it looked like in 2005 and how overgrown it had become. That lead me to find more abandoned parks. I came across one of the largest parks, Heritage USA. Massive in size and scale. Those of you who are my age or older will remember the plight of Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye of PTL fame. This was a quality park, the authors talk about the quality, the design, and that it's been hit by hurricanes and is still in the shape that it's in and hasn't been destroyed...just decaying.

This site gives a few haunting tours of amusement parks that have had better days. It's hard to believe that these ruins were once full of happy people and joy and now sit empty.

Weburbanist is a great site for looking at the beauty in abandoned buildings, parks, ships, well anything people can get into with a camera.

I don't know what really compels me to enjoy these pictures so much. I used to work for a cable company in the early 90's and our headquarters was out of Shamrock, Texas. I'd drive out there quite a bit and it happens that the old Route 66 is still there in places. I drove down it lots of times and there are old abandoned camp sites, art deco gas stations, tons of neon tubes, and roadside attractions. I always wondered what it would have looked like in its prime, at the peak of when it was alive and well.

As long as we have dreamers in the world who are willing to take risks then we will have successes and we will have failures, some mismanaged, some by outside forces, some just die by age. I'm glad they can live on in a way.