As mentioned by me before, some of my fondest memories as a kid was spending my entire Summers in Wildwood, New Jersey! Walking the nearly two mile long boardwalk day and night would never get old to me . . . the food (Sam's Pizza and Curley's Fries on the reg), the prize wheel games and arcade games ("Gateway 26" collected many of my quarters!), and of course the rides . . . oh those fantastic rides! Now truth be told I've never been one for roller coaster or galvatron type rides . . . remember that chewing tobacco scene from "The Sandlot"? Well that was usually the end result any time I got brave enough to put my body into the hands of zero gravity. But one type of ride I always was able to handle and would flock to on a daily basis were the numerous "Dark Rides" that each of the 4 main Piers featured! Off hand (keep in mind I'm talking about the Mid 80s to the Early 90s here) I remember Morey's Piers having Dante's Inferno and a huge Ghostly Pirate Ship that was more of a Walk through attraction then a ride; Hunts' Pier had "The Golden Nugget", "The Whacky Shack", and a "Keystone Cops" rides; Mariner's Landing I believe had a Jungle Cruise that featured Cannibals; and the Nickels Midway Pier featured the infamous Castle Dracula (aka Dracula's Castle)
Credit: Dark in the Park
A lot of pictures and info of all the rides I mentioned above can be found at two of my favorite sites on the web, that being Dark in the Park and Fun Chase, but today I'm here to share some pics from a new favorite I just became aware of, it's called Enchanted Kiddieland and is ran by a good good friend of mine name Missy Mazzaferro!
I became aware of Missy mutual love of Dark Rides when she posted the pics you are about to see below on her Facebook timeline a couple weeks back! I was in awe of the gaudy airbrushed monsters and the total disregard for copyright infringement that these rides that Missy has visited over the years all over the United States!
First up is one of the rides I was mentioning early, I knew it best as "Dante's Inferno" as seen in the first 2 pictures from Wildwood, it's twin as it looks in Coney Island in the third pic, and how it looks now (a lot (l)tamer looking on the outside and known as "Dante's Dungeon"!
Next is 1313 Cemetary Way in Long Island Ny
Dr. Morbid ride that was in Wildwood
The Flying Witch in Playland New York
The Ghost Hole in Coney Island
The Haunted House in Ocean City, Maryland
BUB!
Haunted Mansion in Rehoboth Beach
The Jersey Junk Yard that use to be in Wildwood
Knoebel's Haunted House
Morbid Manor in Ocean City
SpookA Rama in Coney Island
Spook House in Keansburg, NJ
The Devil's Den in New Conneaunt Park
The Old Mill in Rye Playland, NY
Well hope you enjoyed all these Pictures, I know I did! Thanks again Missy for allowing me to share them all here on SMF Page and please everyone be sure to visit the direct source HERE and like the facebook page attached to her site right HERE!
- Tom
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