Frog on the Pumpkin

even though sadly this ride (The Haunted Inn) was destroyed in a fire just a few weeks ago (I knew I should have posted it sooner.) It was the last ride left in the original park. Is that not sad? I am remembering why I stopped posting these a while back :) Pleasureland in Southport , UK was open in 1912 and closed in 2006. (It opened again in 2008 and 2009 for a bit, but then closed again.) What I love about this park is it looks like it had, two, count them boys and girls, two haunted rides!!! . The second ride was called the Ghost Train.

I found this picture from an abandoned amusement park in Japan (cannot give you details as it was all in Japanese) and took it as a sign that I need to stop this abandoned park thing. Can't you just hear the frog saying......"will you stop already!!" Yeah, I hear ya buddy :D Not only have my numbers dropped and husband says my blog is boring.....it has completely killed my sense of humor. Odd how something like that happens. I have been trying to work on some lighter blog posts lately and nothing is working for me.....they are more stupid than funny. Not that I was by any means a good writer before, but I made myself laugh....and as Craig Ferguson says, "that is half the battle" :D So, going back to my normal Halloween posts. Thanks for the few of you that stuck around :D I promise not to do that to you again! :D

the inside of the abandoned haunted ride in Kalito Park in Taiwan is "pretty lame" - Just neon painted not very scary stuff. :) I guess it is scary in that "not good" way :D It appears that the park was abandoned in 1999 after an earthquake. Very creepy photos of the rest of the park can be seen here.

so we are going back to the Rocky Point Haunted Ride - House of Horrors Seriously breaks my heart to see these pictures.....if I could have rescued one of these cars....I would love (as I am sure many Halloween lovers would) to have it my collection. Too bad these things go to ruin before they have the chance to find a deserving home. Pictures courtesy of Opacity

is very hard to just post the pictures of the abandoned haunted ride when the other pictures of the the park are so magnificent. This is a perfect example. Here is a photo of what I am guessing was a haunted (or scary or funny) ride from the now defunct park called Dadipark in Belgium . It has a very unique history and a sad ending. But it has made for some spectacular and quite sad pictures. This guy has taken a rather large amount of photos of the whole park that I think are worth the few minutes of your time. It is creepy to see how nature has reclaimed this area....just creepy. Out of respect for the photographer, I don't want to post any other pictures on my blog, but I encourage you to take a look at the rest of his great photos here.

Silent Hill. It is an abandoned amusement park in on the top of a hill in Rome, Italy called LunEur or Luna Park . Built in 1953 it was closed in 2008. I cannot find many pictures of the park now, and after finding the few I did, I would really love to see more. This first one is of what I am guessing is a haunted ride (from reading about the park, it appears they had several of them.) Very creepy entrance. The next one is of the Ferris wheel to give you a look at the slight amount of decay that is happening. I still cannot get over the fact that there were several haunted rides.....wow, if a park even has one I am thrilled. The pictures are from this site and there are several other shots worth looking at.

that the streets in this amusement park were the inspiration for the abandoned amusement park in Spirited Away (if you have not seen this movie....do so, it is amazing) It is very hard to find many pictures of the inside of the park....something about security guards chasing out photographers :) Nara Dreamland was a theme park near Nara, Japan which was built in 1961 and inspired by Disneyland in California. On August 31, 2006, Nara Dreamland closed permanently. This brave soul ignored (what hero!)the security guards long enough to grab a few shots from inside the park, from his shots I found the only picture of a ride that I can only find referenced on an old map as "haunted house" - so I do not know if it had a name. This picture gives you an idea of what the park looks like now and if you have seen Spirited Away, you can see why it is likely the area that inspired the park for the movie. He has a lot more great pictures to check out .

but it looks nothing like Thomas Moore describes :D Here are pictures of a medieval themed amusement park in Japan called Utopia, which included water slides, a bunch of kiddie rides, a roller coaster, a haunted house, a huge Ferris wheel, and many various buildings. I had a hard time tracking down any information on why this park closed. It appears to have been open between 1987 (?) and closed in 2005. In 2005, a lot of stuff was still left in the haunted house. Here are some great pictures

Here is what Phantasmagoria at the now defunct Bells Amusement Park in Tulsa Oklahoma looks like. It was closed in 2006 by the county for past due rent. The park had been owned and operated by the Bell family for more than 50 years. The bottom photo is of the facade in its heyday, hard to imagine it is the same place. Check out this blog for detailed information on the history of this ride . (photos courtesy of the Secret Fun Blog .)

by a "trailer" ride from Europe. That is the latest word on the final demise of the "Haunted House" in Adventureland in Long Island. I imagine this is all but gone now. I know that the prefab rides are cost effective now, but it seems sad to me that the custom designed and hand built rides are going away. But on the positive thing is that those trailer rides do scare me....in that - "I think I am going to die because the ride looks so cheap kinda way" :D

the name "Rocky Point", as a haunter, I immediately thought of the the famous (and also defunct) haunted house in SLC . I found that there was a much older park in Rhode Island also called Rocky Point Amusement Park (more info here ) it was a highly popular landmark on the Narragansett Bay side of Warwick, Rhode Island. It operated from the late 1840s until its close in 1995. It has a very sad story as that it appears the park only failed because of some bad investments in some other businesses. :( It was so famous and so missed that there was even a movie made about it called " You Must be This Tall " and there was even a comic book created. Very cool and sad. . . . why did I start doing these posts? This research is getting a bit depressing. :D Upon researching their haunted ride called (actually it had several names) "House of Horror" that was a traditional dark ride with cars that lead you through an extensive haunt. ( click here for a lots of his...

You are going to need it, because part of the abandoned haunted amusement ride is now under water. I would so love .....no, not to go diving myself...who knows what could be down there....no, I am not worried about sea monsters - that would be cool! It is more about the bacteria and stuff....eww! What I want is for someone to take an underwater night vision camera down there!! If there are props were still there wouldn't it be weired to see a skeleton or a witch all submerged in murky water.......would that not be so awesome!! Okay, I got a little carried away there...but it would be sooooo awesome. :D Anyway, these great pictures are from Woncheon Lakeland in Suwon (a small town of 1 million people that lies about 30 minutes south of Seoul.) There are few pictures of the haunted attraction, what Dark Roasted Blend shows here is all there is, but if you go to the link there are a lot of pictures of the park, including a odd shaped frog-thingy :) The first one of is of door, ...

abandon these rides....is the devil character as the part of the entrance to the inferno ride just creepy? This is a now defunct park called Miracle Strip Amusement Park , in Panama City, Florida - the two rides are Dante's Inferno and the Haunted Castle. The park was built in 1963 and closed in 2004. I do love these pictures, they are is it sad and alluring at the same time. check out this original photo book, he has taken a lot more pictures. They are just amazing. Steveobczuks Photostream

with this image. I found this on line and then started down the rabbit hole of abandoned amusement parks. I have not been able to clearly clarify where this image is from, some say from the Ukraine, but it appears it is from a now dismantled park in Missouri called Fairyland. If you are afraid of clowns....this should really creep you out :D Sorry :)

after you you say "I do"....I found that both Husband and I are fascinated by old amusement parks. There is a very old park (or what is left of it) called Oaks Park just down the road from our house. I remember a very long time ago that we went down there, before they restored part of it and took some pictures (this is not that post...those pictures are in the basement..I need to find them) then we went to the library and the historic society (yes, we are talking the mid 80s - Internet not what it is today) and researched that park and another one that is now completely gone. So, I was completely fascinated when I came across several sites that have information on old amusement parks. I immediately went searching for information on defunct dark rides. Here is the first of a series of posts on abandoned amusement parks with dark rides and creepy looking decay. Here is the "House of Terror" at the Takakanonuma Greenland Park in Hobara Town, Japan. From the blo g ...