Knoebels, Part One

Every summer, I face a problem. On one hand, I love a good coaster. On the other hand, coasters tend to live in slick amusement parks with overly planned layouts and screaming lines. Which is why I go to Knoebels. Even though there's only two coasters, I'd rather ride them dozens of times than wait hours at the other places.

The reason Knoebels is awesome is one reason alone. The place holds, above all else, to a sense of history. It officially started in 1926, although people visited to picnic and use the swimming hole there previously. More importantly, the place feels every year since. They haven't really found the need to revamp everything into a streamlined modern affair. Instead, you feel like you're walking through a series of stages of building into what it is now. The place feels established. It's an aesthetic that the big amusement parks would love to have, but would fail miserably on.

That isn't to say that the place is run down. In fact, it's meticulously well maintained. Everything, from the rides to the buildings is fresh and clean, and even the oldest rides are solid and safe. The whole place celebrates it's age, and with it, it's own kitsch. In fact, they seek it out, hosting three museums, including one to about it's own history and constantly finding old rides to bring in to the park, restore and preserve a sense of what amusement parks were. A good example is the Looper, their newest ride to date. It was built in the 50s and was a common ride of the day, but this one had fallen into disrepair and disuse. Knoebels bought it, restored perfectly it using the advice of the original engineer, and it's the only one of its type operational in the United States. This isn't the sort of place where rides go to die, it's where they go to be treasured and preserved.

The fact that they don't mess with the established areas of the park means that there's plenty of areas where you feel like you should be standing next to Don Draper from Mad Men as he watches the kiddies and smokes. Above, for instance, is the giant pink birthday cake with candles that sits on top of candy canes and serves as one of the rentable pavillions. Or almost the entire children's area. The Panther Cars and Bumper Cars are both a dream for anyone looking for the location of a 50s or 60s period scene in a movie. It's amazing this place hasn't been found yet.

Course, not changing too much has it's problems. There's the Loaf, a building shaped like, well, a loaf of bread. The main drag of the fair now goes behind the building, meaning you walk by a lot of exposed ductwork. (Around front, the giant loaf of bread inexplicably serves frozen yougart, in a connection I don't quite get).

The other fun part about touring around the place is trying to date things based on the fonts--They range from Art Deco to sixties flowery style to faux eighties dot matrix and everything in between.

Anyway, I'm posting this specifically today as this weekend and next they are opening the park for a Halloween haunted special. Some of the rides will be open, as well as special haunted stuff, so if you want to check the place out before next year, you have a great chance.