Rocky Glen Park, Moosic, Lackawanna County

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.

As you might guess from the topic of my first history book, defunct amusement parks are very interesting to me. Not many of them have historical markers, however, so discovering that there was one in Lackawanna County which does took me by surprise. Let's dive into the history.

11/3/2023: Made a few edits after hearing from Mary Ann Moran-Savakinus of the Lackawanna Historical Society. Thank you, Mary Ann!

Leap-the-Dips, Altoona, Blair County

My apologies to anyone who missed a post last week. I had entirely too much happening at one time and I just couldn't give the blog the attention it deserved. Things are a bit calmer this week, though, so let's head back to beautiful Blair County. You might remember that I was there in July to celebrate my husband Kevin's birthday. 

Kevin is a big fan of roller coasters. I am not, mostly because I'm prone to motion sickness and I also have chronic pain. But Altoona happens to be the home of the oldest roller coaster still operating in the world, and said roller coaster happens to have a historical marker, so I said "Happy birthday, dear," and off we went.

Switchback Railroad, Jim Thorpe, Carbon County

I love this time of year - mostly - but today is an especially gloomy and foggy day here in northeastern Pennsylvania. On the plus side, it's my day off, so at least I don't have to go anywhere.

Today we're going to make one final visit to Carbon County, as this is the last of their markers which currently exist. Perhaps in the future they'll get another and I'll be able to cover the dedication. In the meantime, though, I can mark Carbon County as completely finished on my personal marker list, after I finish telling you about today's subject. 

Pennsylvania is, of course, the site of many "firsts". Some of these are well known; we had the first hospital in the United States, the first theater, the first subscription library, the first zoo. Others are less famous, like the first completely air-conditioned building in the country and the first license plate to display a website address. And then there's today's subject, which was the world's first roller coaster.