We're finally in my favorite month of the year, the one with the pretty leaves and cooler temperatures. This weekend my husband Kevin and I will be heading up to Knoebels Amusement Resort, hopefully to get a couple markers along the way, and that makes it strangely appropriate that this week's blog post is about a different amusement park which actually has a minor connection to Knoebels.
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| The marker stands on Rocky Glen Road in Moosic, at what used to be the entrance to the park |
But wait, it gets weirder. The Lehigh Valley Railroad (the same ones who owned my beloved Laury's Island) developed a plan to extend their tracks over the picnic grounds, which rather understandably annoyed Frothingham. He was in danger of losing his park to eminent domain, so he came up with a fairly clever loophole. He obtained a cemetery charter from the state and had two men buried on the grounds. I promise he did not murder them; it seems one died in a train accident and the other in a mining accident. The burials were strategically placed directly in the proposed track route, and if there's one thing eminent domain can't override, it's a cemetery. So the Lehigh Valley Railroad, apparently taking the whole thing in relatively good humor, bought part of the designated cemetery grounds for $25,000. They agreed that they'd set up a station nearby for the Laurel Line, a trolley car system serving northeastern Pennsylvania, which would bring more people to the park.
Note: I'm a little puzzled by the discrepancy here, because as far as I can tell, the Lehigh Valley Railroad didn't actually own the Laurel Line! The Laurel Line, though it really was a trolley car system, was another name for the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad, and it had little to do with the Lehigh Valley Railroad beyond a connection to one of their stations in Wilkes-Barre. So I really don't know why the LVRR would have built a station for a trolley car that didn't belong to them, and I can't find an explanation anywhere. Feel free to leave a comment if you can clarify this for me.
But wait, it gets a little weirder still. The park became less of a destination in the 1910s, which was not helped by the outbreak of that big argument between Queen Victoria's grandchildren - you know, World War I. Frothingham and Williams attempted to sell their park to a few different outfits, and ultimately found buyers in a trio of businessmen named John Nallin, Joe Jennings, and Ben Sterling. The sale went through in 1919, and Rocky Glen continued to entertain the locals. Ingersoll's original unnamed coaster had been removed by this point and was replaced with Mountain Dips, which from what I've read looked a lot like the Jack Rabbit at Kennywood Park. (I've never been to Kennywood, but if you have, that might give you an idea.) Mountain Dips was the feature of Rocky Glen from 1920 until 1939, when it was torn down after someone died on the ride.
It was at this time that "ethnic days" in the park began to be a thing. The park manager, Anthony Duffy, didn't originate the practice; he simply carried on the local tradition where parks would host annual days celebrating the different backgrounds of the people in northeastern Pennsylvania. While I can't find any concrete details about them, I'm presuming that they involved traditional foods and probably reduced ticket prices for those of the requisite heritage.
The three partners, for whatever reason, didn't particularly get along with each other, and eventually they actually split the park in two with a fence; Jennings and Nallin ran one side as Rocky Glen, while Sterling ran the other side as Sterling's Rocky Glen. They gradually came to more or less copy one another - each side had its own fun house, its own penny arcade, its own miniature railroad, and its own swimming section on the lake shore. It seems that Sterling's side of the park was doing better, especially when he added the Million Dollar Coaster in 1945. This out-and-back coaster became the signature attraction and was, at the time, one of the largest roller coasters in the world. Its only real competition on the Jennings/Nallin side was the Pippin Coaster, which didn't survive the fire of 1950 (keep reading). Interestingly, the ruins of the Pippin were left intact for a few years after it burned, and some portions of the foundation are still visible on the grounds today.
In May of 1950, a huge fire broke out which destroyed the three biggest attractions on Jennings and Nallin's side of the fence. With their half of the park essentially in ruins, they sold it to a couple by the name of Balka. The Balkas turned around and immediately sold it to Ben Sterling, giving him control of the entire park. He tore down the fence and renamed the entire property Sterling's Rocky Glen, which eventually was just called Sterling's. Some of the surviving attractions on his former partners' side of the park were dismantled, to remove the duplicates, and at least one still survives - the miniature railroad has been in the possession of the Clifford Township Volunteer Fire Company, in Susquehanna County, for over 65 years.
However, by the time Sterling took control of the entire park, both World Wars were over; cars were taking precedence over the railroad, and trolley parks (that is, parks like this one which had most of their visitors brought by trolley) were fading. The Million Dollar Coaster was dismantled in 1957 and was replaced by the Jet, which was the last major coaster added to the park and remained standing until the park itself closed.
By the late 1960s, Sterling had also grown tired of running the place. At first he looked into selling it to the commonwealth for use as a state park. But the state was only interested in the land; they wouldn't continue operating the park as an amusement park and would need all the rides and things to be sold. Instead, in 1970, Sterling sold it to the National Recreation Service from Georgia. They turned it into a western-themed park called the Ghost Town in the Glen. It was later renamed Ghost Town Amusement Park, but in neither case was the rebranding successful. People wanted the Rocky Glen they had always known, and so in 1979 it was sold one final time and renamed New Rocky Glen. In addition to an amusement park, it became a concert venue starting in 1980, headlining names like Jerry Garcia and Benny Goodman.
Among its worse claims to fame, Rocky Glen was the site of more than forty recorded deaths, and that's not including the two men who were buried there in the very beginning. Most of these were unfortunate people who drowned in the lake. Four were killed riding the various roller coasters. Several others suffered electrocution when they got too close to the Laurel Line's third rail. Perhaps most unusual of all, a small plane actually crashed in the park, killing the three people on board. I can't find a date when that took place, however.
But wait, it's still weird. The park had its final season in 1987. It wasn't intended to be the final season; they fully expected it to reopen in 1988. But the park manager and park land owner at the time had some kind of argument over the lease agreement, with the result being that the park simply never opened again. Instead of a 1988 park season, there was an auction that year in which several of the attractions were sold as the park was dismantled. Knoebels, in particular, bought the Antique Cars and the Bumper Boats, both of which ran for many years. (The Bumper Boats were taken out in 2015, to provide room for their steel coaster Impulse. The Antique Cars ride still operates - I've been on it! - but most of the cars have been replaced by newer, safer models.) Some of the buildings remained on the site for years afterward; the oldest building in the park, built in 1904 as a carousel house and later used as the Golden Nugget Casino, eventually burned in the 1990s.
But wait, we've got one more bit of weird history. I don't claim to know much of anything about Hare Krishna, other than that it's a running gag in The Muppet Movie for characters to ask each other "Have you tried Hare Krishna?" (I was very little when the movie came out and I had no idea who "Harry Krishna" was.) But a local branch of this international society expressed interest in purchasing the former park grounds. Their plan was to build a walled "City of God" on the property. It seems that the sale was originally considered, but seven hundred locals signed petitions stating their opposition to such a thing, and it never happened.
Today, Rocky Glen really is something of a Ghost Town in the Glen. At least part of the property was eventually absorbed into the Glenmaura National Golf Club, a private golf course. You'd never even know that a park ever stood there, except for those bits of the Pippin that I mentioned, some fading signs on the side of the road, and the blue and gold historical marker. I've seen some photos by people who have explored the ruins, though, and it looks like a few other things linger beneath the leaves and vines, like a stone staircase.
But it lingers in the memories of those who were there. Facebook has a rather active group for those who remember Rocky Glen to share their photos and recollections. Meanwhile, locals Bob Savakinus and Shannon Keith created a pair of documentaries about the park. Rocky Glen Park and Return to Rocky Glen highlight the happier parts of the park's peculiar history, featuring rarely-seen images and video footage, as well as interviews with people worked there or patronized it. Both are available for purchase on DVD; Bob's wife Mary Ann is my contact at the Lackawanna Historical Society, and the DVDs can be purchased through their website's gift shop, found here.
Sources and Further Reading:
Futrell, Jim. Amusement Parks of Pennsylvania. Stackpole Books, 2002.
Mattei, Matt. "'Return to Rocky Glen' a history of fun." The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, August 4, 2015.
WNEP contributors. "On the Pennsylvania Road: Remember the roller coaster at Rocky Glen." WNEP.com video, August 19, 2020.
Angus, Harry G. "Rocky Glen Amusement Park, Rocky Glen Road, Moosic, PA." Blog post at Jerry's Brokendown Palaces, July 2, 2012.
Rocky Glen Park at the Roller Coaster Database
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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