Clementon Park : a Dying Breed - Full Length Documentary

[Music] Clementon Park celebrates the Millennium with four new exciting rides the inverter kite flyer family fun ride demolition derby and turtle world and don't forget discount coupons at McDonald's thank you [Music] foreign [Music] park opened back in 1907 and has operated ever since until 2019. it is one of the last trolley parks in America [Music] the park has been operated by numerous people and undergone years of constant change For Better or Worse The Future Has looked uncertain but for now let's go all the way back [Music] Theodore B Gibbs was born in 1838 and was a new jersey assemblyman and a Civil War veteran throughout his life he worked many jobs like a postmaster and a sheriff he was also a member of the Atlantic City Railroad board of directors trolley lines became increasingly popular back in the early 1900s as a way of encouraging people to take trips to amusement parks as they attracted many weekend visitors many of these guests would come from neighboring Camden in search of new experiences during their Leisure Time the first ride on Clementon Park's property was added all the way back in 1906. the ride called aerial wave used three men who held a large wooden ring attached to a rope they ran in a circle to spin the small gondola this was the first ever attraction at Clementon Park the start of over 100 Years of History one year later the trolley lines from Haddon Heights were extended to the property Clementon Park was officially founded in 1907 by Theodore and was the first amusement park in the area the property is now the second oldest amusement park in the state of New Jersey having been open for over 110 years it all started with a small picnic Grove and Beach a showcase that anything can become something with the right dedication plan and Leadership in a tragic turn of events during the month of October in 1909 Theodore Gibbs passed away and the park was left to his family to continue what he had started two years earlier while his passing was a tragedy the family continued with their expansion plans coming off the loss of Theodore the Park's management added new attractions and experiences to entice the public these new attractions included an open-air Pavilion and increased Fleet of boats to 100 for the lake and a baseball diamond that was built as quote one of the finest in the country in 1912 Mary Gibbs the wife of Theodore gifted the property of Clementon park nearby houses and the Old Grist Mill to her three sons this would be the start of the expansion and growth of the area with the new management being appointed the three sons of Theodore added multiple attractions a Nickelodeon movie theater a quote dancing casino and one of the most important a steam driven carousel the carousel built by the Philadelphia toboggan company was a 1919 Carousel with three rows and 48 horses and a model number of number 49. one final ride was installed for the 1919 season and would be the first coaster at the park known as Jackrabbit this coaster stood at a height of 50 feet featuring a top speed of 35 miles per hour and a length of 1 380 feet the coaster was certainly not small for its time being designed by legendary coaster engineer John a Miller this coaster would become a staple of the park for decades to come the coaster only cost a mere eighty thousand dollars which would be approximately 1.2 million dollars in 2022. the addition of Jackrabbit would help Clementon Park to flourish in the following years many more rides would be added to the park as the years passed these included a Noah's Ark attraction this is a walk through fun house style attraction where the boat would rock back and forth to give the illusion of it being on water these were extremely popular at the time and could once be found at nearly all major amusement parks only one Noah's Ark continues to operate today at Kennywood park in West Mifflin Pennsylvania other attractions added in this time period would be a whip attraction shooting gallery and ferris wheel despite these additions the park would face an assortment of negative backlash from the public the rest of the 1920s would include a lawsuit regarding Noah's Ark a tax cut War for the park and the quote Clementon death Lake around the swimming grounds making this an era of the park that may have not been the most kind regarding the Public's viewpoint the 30s seemed to have started out well with the new Penny Arcade but the year of 1931 was one that now seems to have been lost to history this year was to be remembered as the year of the great fire according to the New York Times quote a vivid pyrotechnic display and the success of reports of exploding cartridges added to the spectacular aspect of a fire which swept through part of Clementon Park a South Jersey pleasure Resort the fire had reached the cartridge supply of the shooting gallery setting off explosions firemen from six adjoining towns fought the fire which was contained to the shooting gallery and a nearby pretzel Dark Ride the damages were estimated to be two thousand dollars equal to nearly thirty four thousand dollars today this fire could have destroyed the entire park if not for the actions of all the firemen involved in containing the blaze after such a devastating event surely things would calm down but the following year of 1932 brought something even stranger socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas campaigned at Clementon Park in 1932 at a July 4th speech in front of 3500 people more occurrences like this would happen in 1936 with Philadelphia boxer alator he trained at Clementon park for the heavyweight title fight against Joe Lewis to occur in Philadelphia on September 22nd 1936. thousands of boxing fans visited the park to see a tour train multiple events also took place throughout the 1930s and 1950s at Clementon Park's Ballroom these events included hosted dance marathons various celebrities such as Red Skelton and Dick Clark were hosts on certain dates these were some of the biggest names the parks venues ever hosted still being recognized to this day Clementon Park also hosted dance marathons to help survive the depression the prizes were 100 to Partners who lasted the longest it's safe to say that the park was involved in much more than just amusements back in its Heyday getting into anything they could to find an audience of customers in 1977 the Gibbs family sold Clementon Lake Park to Abram Baker this marked an end to the family's run which began when Theodore Gibbs founded the property with this came a new era for the park which would last a while Abraham Baker was a businessman who had experience owning a nightclub in Miami Florida but this was not his first Venture into amusement parks he served as the owner of Glen Echo Park in Maryland from 1955 to 1968 but his ownership of Clementon would be different Baker was not able to dedicate the time necessary for operating an amusement park so one of his sons Larry Baker was appointed as the general manager in 2007 an installment of Arcadia publishings images of America book series I have not lived in Clementon for some time about 20 years but I volunteer with the Clementon historical commission and really just enjoyed growing the artifacts photographs body of research and findings related to the town's really cool history in the mid-1980s my parents bought a house in Clementon told us we were moving there and I find it interesting that even though this move was all of one mile from lindenwald to Clementon I remember feeling so excited that we were moving to the town with the amusement park and I vividly remember standing in my backyard and the other kids the neighbors commenting on it saying things like you're going to get to go to Clementon Park all the time which obviously did not happen nothing really changed but I think it serves as a testament to the excitement among children and that sense that Clinton had this really notable exciting thing attached to it even as a child I think I recognized that there was something a little bit special about having this amusement park almost in my backyard gentleman named Abe Baker I never I never met him I know at some point I believe he ran some businesses in Miami in Atlantic City he bought the park in the late 1970s and Abe Baker had three sons I met one of his sons Larry briefly around the time I was writing my book in the early 2000s my sense is that Larry was the son who had the largest hand in running the park through the 80s and 90s and until it was sold in the in the early 2000s I remember meeting Larry briefly and his office was covered in all sorts of Park memorabilia that that interested me old photos and I think maybe some if I recall correctly some vintage amusement park art that he probably brought with him but no I didn't really have much interaction with him Doris it's Clementon Park's greatest ride ever King Neptune's Revenge but Harry it's just for kids one of the biggest large bloom rides in the whole country just for kids I know it's great fun Dar es for everybody but it's just for oh my God okay like you and me Doris come to Clementon Park's grand opening this weekend clowns gifts magic and new kitty ride in 1983 the park added the King Neptune log flume this log flume built by intiman was an exciting new attraction notable for using the lake setting to its Advantage the ride is seen as the Park's first major turning point in years and showed that the Bakers were willing to invest money into keeping the park growing for years to come such an optimistic outlook for the Park's future did not last long as according to several newspapers there were 11 injuries on the log flume in its opening year this would prove to only be a minor setback however as the ride reopened shortly after following the log flume's opening the Park's Focus would turn to much smaller events and additions and it would also find use as a filming location such as in 1984 when Diana Ross filmed a music video there in 1988 three new attractions were added to the park among these additions were the Sea Dragon a pirate ship ride that still runs to this day at some point during the 1990s the historic Carousel would be auctioned off each horse was sold separately for a fraction of what they were worth the purpose of this was reportedly to raise money to continue the operation of the park this was the end of the historic ride's time on property at this point in the 1990s there was an idea to expand the old beachfront portion of the park a new water park to be called Splash World would be placed on the site Splash World was to include a Kitty play area Lazy River dueling indoor tube slides and a family raft ride the expansion would open on time with the park for the 2003 season this would prove to be a great addition to the park but management still knew that they needed to add a brand new Thrill Ride following the removal of the carousel an accident would occur that would change the park Forever on August 5th 1998 three people were injured while riding the jackrabbit coaster the coaster is known to have derailed crashing into the Park's management offices right next door officials claim that the ride operator planned to allow the train to run more than one circuit so he disengaged the automatic brakes and allowed the train to pass through three sets of breaks but he forgot to slow the train down manually as it rounded an area of track near the office building the train was going too fast for the turn and derailed left work at home turn the television on and see what the news is and I'm watching an aerial footage and they're talking about a roller Coaster's accent and like wow that's uh quite unusual uh it's one of what it was one of ours I mean Jackrabbit has our cores on him company build it with John Miller so anyways I've watched the news footage and the next day I was like okay we'll let things settle for a bit and nobody called and then I drove over to Camden at irva to uh Blackwood and uh just went to the front gate said I'd like to see Larry Baker or Gia and the GM anybody would be interested in talking to me and here to see if I can help and uh they let me in I went to the office and all the furniture was pushed aside and it was a great big hole in the wall it wasn't all the way through it came in push the wall and off in that it pushed the couch a coffee table and everything else that just to place to everything so you're kind of walking in and I think they were leaving it just until the insurance company got there I met that was the first time I met Larry Baker like what are you doing here why'd you come over I saw the news anything I could do to help you yeah they said well we got the car out and we're looking at it we're trying to figure out what's wrong so okay fine um looked at the car looked at the wall all the wall and then I got a tour of the park and things showed me all these different things they were doing and it was pretty cool and they said they'd be in touch about a week later they called and said well we we can't fix it and we sent it back so they sent train back to us [Music] um it was pretty much damaged all the way through and I basically told them that you know the for the cost of a new train is what's going to cost us to repair this so they opted to buy a new train the 28 year old ride operator who was running the coaster at the time was fired arrested and charged with violating public health and safety laws he faced a one thousand dollar fine in three years in prison if found guilty but nothing was ever updated on the proceedings the three victims who were all riding in the first car of the train were treated at a local hospital and later released according to the Park's former ride director many employees had complained to management about the problems with the ride's brakes operators and patrons complained that the trains would often pass through the brakes and come to a stop past the normal point of unloading sometimes up to several times a day leaving the operator no choice but to let the train make another circuit so that the passengers could be unloaded properly Park officials confirmed that they had received such complaints but that the ride was inspected by Park maintenance workers in response to each complaint and no evidence was found of mechanical error Park management blamed ride operators for such incidents following the incident with Jackrabbit the park wanted to appeal to families again in the early 2000s the park added a brand new children's area which featured an overhang to keep everyone in the shade this area also included a petting zoo the park would later add a chance rides inverter a zamperla kite flyer a chance rides chaos a zamperla demolition derby a selner turtle world and the largest addition a replacement CP Huntington train allowing the park to retire their older aging train as the 2002 season approached the park was in for a treat Jack Rabbit had been experiencing mechanical issues for years at this point and the coaster was practically on life support the Park's current management decided to leave the coaster standing but not operating marking the end of the nearly 90 year old Coaster's operational life which began in 1919 if it were around today it would be one of the oldest operating coasters in the world with jackrabbits shuttered many guests visiting Clementon agreed that the park needed a new coaster and the management were well aware but before this was to occur the park had larger expansion plans at nearly the same time the park was looking for a replacement for Jackrabbit SNS worldwide founded a brand new division a wooden coaster division by using some of their own employees and hiring people from the now defunct custom coasters International SNS decided to try their hand at building wooden coasters the first SNS wooden coaster was built in 2003 and appeared to be a success this coaster was Timber Hawk at Wild Waves theme and water park in Washington state in addition to being a smooth well-built ride Timber Hawk also came at a price cheaper than that of the competition with this knowledge in mind the owners of Clementon Park decided to purchase an SNS wooden coaster not knowing the issues that would come to follow the coaster they purchased would become the last of only four to be built by SNS worldwide's wooden coaster division for moving from CCI to SNS uh wasn't a planned transition I had had left CCI a few years prior and then SNS had started up a wood coaster division so I had just done some Consulting um for s s for a few years and still had you know my regular full-time job so this was the original concept designed for the help what became the Hellcat so this was an area where the owner really wanted the ride to go out over the lake as much as possible so the original design involved you know a series of a lot of Piers and a lot of bridge work to span out over the lake and the area of the station area was really more toward the uh where the tiger circus show was that was the original area that the owner had requested the ride to be located in subsequently the cost of the the length of the ride was pretty excessive and the cost of the the bridge work and the pilings was obviously a big cost as well so the second iteration of the ride came through we decided to move the station to a different area to keep the costs down and keep the length down this was a site that was chosen eventually became very similar to the location where it is now around the picnic Pavilion and the station area was also pretty similar the final version of the ride is largely as it is now we decided to change the location of lift Hill and have the first drop go down over the lake and also the second drop has some pilings and goes out over the lake as well there was a little bit of changes on the final design after the sale the Helix was switched to the other side and the station area had a crossover but uh this was eventually he did like the uh the interplay with the the log flume ride and uh the fact that it did go out of the water twice and so this was the final concept design that was sold to the to the park clementon's new coaster revealed to be called tsunami was one of three wooden coasters SNS were building in 2004 and each would have its own set of issues rumors would leak from the construction site including a claim that the steel supports for the Coaster's second Hill were delivered to the wrong Park it has been said that the lift Hill for Avalanche another SNS wooden coaster located in Wisconsin Dells was sent to Clementon for use on tsunami this meant that they had put together the lift parts and shipped them all the way back to the Dells it is unknown if the existing Hill on tsunami uses any of these supports but this was only one of the many issues that plagued the ride SNS reportedly used subgrade lumber to achieve the 4 million dollar price tag a price very affordable for a wooden coaster above 100 feet that also had pilings into a nearby lake the track was considered smooth enough for the time but each transition felt off despite the difficulties with its construction tsunami opened in the summer of 2004 to rave reviews from coaster enthusiasts it was a fun and intense ride but not without its flaws guests would note the poor transitions into the near 90-degree overbank track issues like these would return to haunt the coaster in the future um Larry Baker kept insisting that we built one train and it was slower than the other train and I tell there's no way we could do that everything is done in a production like matter everything's built the same kind of get your guys underneath there was something wrong something Dragon we we take them apart from top to bottom then we flip them over to take the wheels off and with that we see this clump what the heck is that thing and we're poking at it looking at it and I figured out what it was here a woman's wig had to come off and wrap this off around one of the side Wheels seized it and the wheel was flat spotted from just being drug around the coaster and I said there's a reason why although it was well received by those who wrote it tsunami was not a success marketing wise and did not attract the crowd's management had hoped for at the time of its opening the Coaster's name would attract some bad press after the deadly earthquake and tsunami which occurred off the coast of Indonesia in December 2004. this led Park management to rename and remarket the coaster in 2005 to j-2 also known as jackrabbit 2. following this not much was done to the park with the newly renamed j-2 not bringing in the crowds management faced a bitter reality the only path forward was to put the park up for sale in 2007 Clementon Park was bought by a small company that was founded with the sole purpose of purchasing the struggling Park its name was adrenaline family entertainment and while they were a very new company in the industry their staff was anything but being run by a former Six Flags manager and other ex-6 flags employees this new ownership seemed promising and the public was open to a change Clementon New Jersey January 10 2008 a new century of family fun awaits South Jersey and Philadelphia residents thanks to the recent acquisition of Clementon park and splash World by Edmond oklahoma-based adrenaline family entertainment Incorporated the 100 year old family park will open on Memorial Day weekend in 2008 with new ownership New Management a new logo and millions of dollars in improvements including a massive new Polynesian themed multi-level Aqua Playland to be called Laguna Kahuna the park will also extend the operating calendar adding 34 more days of delight sweeping changes at the new Clementon park and splash world will begin with a beautiful new welcome sign on Berlin Road featuring the Family theme parks modified name new logo and dramatic lighting adrenaline family entertainment had some real talent on its team despite being a new company the CEO and all managers had experience in the industry so the future looked bright for Clementon Park their first course of action was to rename J2 into what we know it as today Hellcat their second course of action would address the original jackrabbit the new management did not see the need to keep the dilapidated coaster rotting on their property and having deemed it too costly to refurbish demolished it in 2007 to make room for future developments after standing motionless since 2002 Jackrabbit was finally being put to rest adrenaline family entertainment had numerous plans for the future of the property and wanted to grow as a company by assembling a portfolio of regional amusement parks they would acquire Alabama Splash Adventure as well the first in what was intended to be a long list of sister parks to Clementon however these ambitious plans would not come to be and adrenaline family entertainment's last addition to the park Was A Larson drop tower known as thunderdrop this attraction was not even permanent and was merely placed down onto the pavement making it obvious that the owner's funds were running out adrenaline family entertainment would sell the park in 2011 bringing an end to their ownership of Clementon Park sadly despite a team of experienced employees they could not afford to run the historic property following adrenaline's brief time operating Clementon Park it was time for another team of Six Flags employees to have a stab at running one of the country's oldest Amusement properties in 2011 Premier Parks acquired Clementon Park press releases at the time stated the following Clementon park and splash world one of the nation's oldest amusement parks has been sold to an entertainment group led by former Six Flags executives they plan to improve the venue which debuted in 1907 on the banks of Clementon Lake but revealed no specifics in an announcement made Monday the buyers are Kieran Burke former Six Flags CEO and Gary Story the company's former Chief Operating Officer terms of the deal were not disclosed we are excited about the opportunity to enhance the entertainment value of this Historic Park that has always enjoyed a strong group outing business and local market visitation Burke said in a statement Premier Park's first course of action was to expand Clementon Park's most popular area Splash World the new owners hired Aquatic Design Group a company well known for Designing and constructing water parks to design a brand new area for Splash World called Big Wave Bay this area would include a new wave pool as its main attraction around this time a drop slide called torpedo Rush was also added to the park although these Investments made a good first impression not much else was done after this during Premier Park's ownership and an era of stagnation occurred until the year 2019. the year was a step in the right direction from premiere the park was to add four attractions to its lineup these included a Tilt-A-Whirl a Scrambler and a brand new kitty pirate ship from SBF Visa the fourth edition would be the Park's first ever Kitty coaster relocated from the recently closed bowcraft playland in North Jersey this wisdom rides Dragon coaster was a fun and small family ride and locals who had visited bowcraft were happy to see it find a new home growing up in New Jersey and I've only been to Clement Clementon Park twice I went once in 2007 when I was 11 years old during summer camp and then later in 2019 I finally went back so down in South Jersey so I just haven't hadn't been down that way in a long time and I guess I got really lucky because I got to ride Hellcat right before it closed but I just remember Hellcat being like one of the roughest wooden roller coasters I had ever ridden and I think that's just because of it kind of just shows the state of where the park was at the time and Hellcat has definitely has a lot of potential as a roller coaster the layout's really nice it just needs some work some refurbishment and then it could probably be like a you know like towards the top tier wooden roller coaster and then you know there's some other rides there they have a nice log flume they have another kitty coaster um if they just kind of fixed it up and just made it have like a nicer presence and Vibe I think it would be a really nice park and I think they'd attract a lot more enthusiasts and just people in general and I think it could be like a nice park in Southern New Jersey the future looked promising for the small park but this optimism would be short-lived as quite literally out of nowhere Clementon Park would end operations only a week before the end of its summer season on September 25th there were reports of Park employees showing up to help with the scheduled Fall Festival security turned them away and said they were closed no announcements were made anywhere just a cancellation the popular online news website screamscape said this on the matter today I received a report from an anonymous source telling us that on Monday Park owner Kieran Burke arrived on site and gathered all of the parks year-round full-time staff and informed everyone that they were being let go and final checks were handed out for all intents and purposes Clementon Park appears to be no more but is it closed for Good or perhaps we have to ask if the park is in the middle of being sold to a new owner or even a land developer it was indeed true about the premier Park CEO coming to shut down the park giving the employees their final paycheck and leaving the general manager was left to search for a new owner himself as Premier had to figure out what to do with the property if a buyer was not found November 2019 I started planning this documentary waiting patiently for the time I would be allowed back inside the park time passed and no news of real buyers the coveted shutdown happened and the property went bankrupt receivership from the bank in early 2021. being closed now for almost two full years Sitting Waiting for a new owner waiting for that Slimmer of Hope March 20th I myself was given a tour throughout the property I was the last public person allowed inside the park before auction the exact day after my tour was the auction the log flume never got a bid and Hellcat was being sold for only forty thousand dollars at the end the park sold for a mere 2.35 million it was surprising relieving and scary I didn't know who bought the park and what their plans were but on March 24th I found out the buyer was Gene Staples Gene had helped buy out Indiana beach when it went into bankruptcy reopening that Park back in 2020 it seemed he wanted to do the same thing again to another Historic Park though I did not get to interview Gene for this documentary I want to say thank you to him thanks to you this Dying Breed lives to see another day [Music] [Music] foreign 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Channel: NewJerseyCoasters

Views: 12,790

Keywords: clementon, clementon park, new jersey, new, jerseys, jersey, south, south jersey, amusement, park, amusement park, abandoned, abandoned theme park, abandoned amusement park, documentary, information, history, clementon nj, nj, theme, parks, fun, themepark, rollercoasters, coasters, coaster, roller, summer, united states, ride, rides, splash, world, june, 2020 documentary, 2020

Id: utI4y-weKGA

Length: 35min 51sec (2151 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 02 2023