A comprehensive guide to 13 parks in the state, complete with information on rides and attractions. Packed with vintage postcard images and photos.

Idlewild and SoakZone has charmed people across Western Pennsylvania and beyond since the late 1800s. The park was developed by Pittsburgh's Mellon family as a picnic grove to boost traffic on the Ligonier Valley Rail Road. When C.C. Macdonald took the helm in 1931, rides, entertainment and other attractions came to Idlewild over the next half century, along with the adjacent Story Book Forest. After joining the Kennywood family of amusement parks, Idlewild added a Wild West town, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe and a water slide complex. Author Jennifer Sopko tells the heartwarming history of a Pennsylvania amusement park that continues to delight generations of families.

This book focuses on those great memories and experiences you can only get in an amusement park. Our attention will be on Pennsylvania parks and rides that have pleased riders for generations, along with covering some newer rides in those parks. Also included are some interesting state landmarks within a close vicinity of the covered amusement parks to give you a good blueprint for a getaway. Included are interviews with some very important people in the amusement park industry and many photos. Featured parks include Dorney Park, Hersheypark, Kennywood, Waldameer, Lakemont Park, Conneaut Lake Park and DelGrosso's.

At one time, Western Pennsylvania was home to dozens of small amusement parks, many of them trolley parks. These parks, originally designed to bolster streetcar business, were a way for workers to seek respite from the crowded, dirty cities. While some of these parks never developed into much more than a dance hall and a merry-go-round, others became full-scale amusement parks with rides, entertainment, and other amusements. After years of battling floods, changing economies, the decline of streetcars, and competition from other amusement parks, many of these amusement parks ended up closing their gates for good, the thrills they once provided now relegated to memories. With many of these parks all but lost to time, it is time to take a look back and remember some of the most prominent lost amusement parks of Western Pennsylvania.

Laury's Island was a popular amusement resort, owned and run by the Lehigh Valley Railroad in Pennsylvania's Lehigh County in the late 19th century. Over a hundred years later, the park has been almost completely forgotten. This book is an attempt to provide a comprehensive history of the island park's fifteen years.

Idlewild and SoakZone has charmed people across Western Pennsylvania and beyond since the late 1800s. The park was developed by Pittsburgh's Mellon family as a picnic grove to boost traffic on the Ligonier Valley Rail Road. When C.C. Macdonald took the helm in 1931, rides, entertainment and other attractions came to Idlewild over the next half century, along with the adjacent Story Book Forest. After joining the Kennywood family of amusement parks, Idlewild added a Wild West town, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe and a water slide complex. Author Jennifer Sopko tells the heartwarming history of a Pennsylvania amusement park that continues to delight generations of families.

For more than a century, Kennywood has been the Pittsburgh area's playground. Founded in 1898 at the terminus of the Monongahela Street Railway trolley line, the park quickly grew into a favorite summertime destination. Kennywood is unique in that it is one of the country's few successful trolley parks. In 1987, Kennywood was designated a National Historic Landmark and is known today as America's Finest Traditional Amusement Park. Many unique rides and attractions have distinguished Kennywood over the years. Some old favorites, such as the Rockets, Laff in the Dark, Ghost Ship, and Skooters, are long gone. Others, such as the Old Mill, Noah's Ark, Auto Race, Turtle, Whip, and Grand Carousel, still entertain guests today. Kennywood is perhaps best known for its impressive collection of roller coasters, from earlier coasters such as the Figure Eight, Speed-O-Plane, and Pippin to the Racer, Jack Rabbit, Thunderbolt, and Phantom's Revenge coasters that still thrill riders today.

This comprehensive guide profiles 16 major amusement parks in the Empire State and offers information on smaller parks as well. Offers complete information on rides and attractions, a history of each park, and best times to go. Features vintage photographs and postcards scenes.

A photographic retrospective covers more than 100 years of images from the history of the American amusement park.