Amusement Parks and the National Parks System

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Amusement Parks and the National Parks System

Leisure Time. Amusement parks and national parks in the late nineteenth century represented two sharply different visions of the use of leisure time. Amusement parks were man-made environments that duplicated and distorted the urban experience, and did everything they could to prevent contemplation. Meanwhile, national parks were celebrated for their natural grandeur and the possibility of solitude and contemplation.

Early Developments. American amusement parks in the late nineteenth century began as wooded parks at the end of trolley lines and noisy avenues on the outskirts of cities. Their growth was the direct result of the development of streetcar and railway lines and, later, subway systems. Since electric power companies charged transit firms a flat monthly rate regardless of the amount of electricity used, city railway owners needed to increase the number of riders during slow weekends and evenings. The solution was pleasure parks located at the end of the line. They started as picnic groves, often near bodies of water, then added regular entertainments, mechanical amusements, dance halls, sports fields, boat rides, and restaurants. By 1919 there were approximately fifteen hundred to two thousand amusement parks in the United States that provided entertainment for the general public.

Impact of 1893 Fair. The World’s Columbian Exposition had a major influence on the development of amusement centers in the 1890s. At this event George Washington Gale Ferris built and operated his namesake wheel. Aside from the Ferris wheel, the Chicago fair introduced the midway, an avenue for concessions and amusements that became the trademark of amusement parks, carnivals, expositions, and fairs thereafter. The midway was nearly a mile long and six hundred feet wide and linked the rowdy “entertainment” concessions with the more educational and cultural exhibitions at the fair. Every major city soon had at least one amusement park that followed this formula: Cleveland (Euclid Beach), Boston (Revere Beach), Chicago (Cheltenham Beach), Denver (Manhattan Beach), Pittsburgh (Kennywood Park), Saint Louis (Forest Park Highlands), San Francisco (The Chutes), and Philadelphia (Willow Grove). Each amusement park had a midway with a carousel, a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, a penny arcade, and fireworks displays.

THE FERRIS WHEEL

At the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, George Washington Gale Ferris, a railroad and bridge engineer, built an amusement ride that is now a mandatory feature at any fair or carnival. The Ferris wheel was an instant hit after its 21 June debut, the highlight of the exposition for most visitors, and undoubtedly helped the fair turn a profit. The Ferris wheel earned back its entire cost of $380,000 on 1 September when it forwarded to the exposition $25,000 as royalty on the first profits. At the fair’s end in late October, 1,453,611 customers had ridden the wheel, with a gross intake of $726,805.50.

The axle of the Ferris wheel was considered a manufacturing accomplishment, the largest single piece of steel ever forged at that time. Produced by the Bethlehem Iron Company, the axle was 45 feet 6 inches long, 33 inches in diameter, and weighed more than 45 tons. The towers supporting the axle were 140 feet high and anchored in bedrock. The entire structure was 264 feet high and had two concentric wheels from which hung 36 pendulum cars, each capable of holding 60 passengers (for a total of 2,160 riders). The total weight of the structure was 1,200 tons, and it was powered by two 1,000-horsepower engines.

After the World’s Columbian Exposition, Ferris dismantled his wheel and made an unsuccessful attempt to develop a small park around it. Ferris died broke in 1896, but the original Ferris wheel entertained visitors at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition before Saint Louis citizens condemned it as a rusting eyesore. On 11 May 1906 the “Great Wheel” was destroyed by a one-hundred-pound dynamite charge.

Source: Judith A. Adams, The American Amusement Park Industry: A History of Technology and Thrills (Boston: Twayne, 1991).

Coney Island. The biggest attraction that opened during this period was Coney Island, New York, the supreme example of the American amusement park until Disneyland opened in 1955. Located south of Brooklyn and nine miles from Manhattan, Coney Island had attracted visitors since 1829, when the first hotel was built there. During the antebellum period the area slowly acquired restaurants, bathhouses, saloons, and a steamboat service that linked the island to Manhattan. In 1884 LaMarcus Thompson built on the island the Switchback Railway Coaster, an early version of the roller coaster. Sea Lion Park, the first enclosed amusement park with an admission fee in the nation, opened on Coney Island in 1895. Two years later Steeplechase Park, a fifteen-acre attraction built and owned by George C. Tilyou, opened to the public. Tilyou’s success was based on an understanding of the needs of common Americans. He explained that “what attracts the crowd is the wearied mind’s demand for relief in unconsidered muscular action. . . . We Americans want either to be thrilled or amused, and we are ready to pay well for either sensation.” Upon entering the park, patrons paid a twenty-five-cent admission fee that allowed them to enjoy all the rides as many times as desired during the day. The central attraction of the park was a ride known as the Steeplechase, eight wooden double-saddled horses that raced along an undulating track. (The double saddles allowed a man and woman to ride together with the man’s arms snugly around the woman’s waist.) By 1900 more than one million people had ridden the Steeplechase.

National Parks. Reformers in the late nineteenth century considered parks oases for the protection of plant and animal life, for natural wonders, and for public recreation. When western naturalists, such as John Muir and John Wesley Powell, described the breathtaking sights and sounds of Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and other natural areas, they aroused the interest of eastern seaboard residents. In the beginning, national parks protected magnificent scenery from timbering, mining, and other industries; their use as places of recreation and of leisure came much later. With time, the glories of Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and the Sierra Nevada became well known, and the idea of a national park system took off. Yellowstone National Park (1872), covering 1,189 square miles of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, was the first national park to be created. Visitors were astounded by its ten thousand hot springs and two hundred geysers, including Old Faithful. Yosemite started as a California state park (1864) but was incorporated into the national park system in 1890; it has the highest waterfall in North America. Sequoia National Park, also in California, was established in 1890 with its Sierra redwoods and Mount Whitney, the highest mountain peak in the United States outside of Alaska. In 1899 Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State, with the largest one-peak glacial system in the United States, was created. Until 1916 these parks were administered by the army before being transferred to the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior.