Maryland's Amusement Parks

I was introduced to the Images of America series of books last summer when I picked up a copy of their book about my hometown of Columbia, MD. The books in this series are great because they are heavy on pictures and light on words - spoken like a true American, eh!? MARYLAND'S AMUSEMENT PARKS by Jason Rhodes (Arcadia Publishing, 128 pages) gathers together images from the dozens of amusement parks that once called Maryland home. There was Kiddieland in Montgomery County, Gwynn Oak in Woodlawn, Carr's Beach in Anne Arundel County, Tolchester Beach on the Eastern Shore, and Electric Park near Reisterstown. You've probably never heard of any of these parks, but most of them were major centers of amusement with big thrill rides and all the other types of rides you'd see in today's theme park.

The book dedicates a chapter each to two of Maryland's most famous parks. Glen Echo Park was a big deal back in the day. It is located in Montgomery County and even though the rides are gone, the park is still open and used as an Arts Center. Glen Echo was one of those parks that was the first in the area to get all the new rides. Check out this ride called "The Tub." Other parks called it "The Human Roulette Wheel" which is a good name for it because it looks like you're gambling with your life if you step foot on the thing. Have you ever seen something more dangerous!? They could have called this ride "The Inevitable Lawsuit". If this ride were around today, not only would you be strapped into the thing with a 12-point harness, it would be themed to Shrek and have a giant Donkey vomiting on you during the ride.

Maryland's other cherished amusement park was The Enchanted Forest. An entire chapter in this book is filled with photos of this great park that I loved visiting as a child. There's tons of great pictures of this Howard County classic. Here we see Little Toot passing through Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Vesuvius was a giant mountain that sat in the back of the park. The only way to get to the mountain was to take a raft over to Robinson Crusoe Island, avoid being eaten by goats on the island, and take the bridge across the water to the Mount. Once there, you got to ride the awesome-est sliding board ever built. That thing went all over that mountain and it was just about the coolest thing ever built inside an amusement park. I can remember running back up the ramp on the side of the mountain over and over again to ride the slide.

Not surprisingly, there is a housing complex where most of the park was. If you know where to look, you can still see Mt. Vesuvius rotting away behind a chain-link fence in the distance between two houses. And yes, I do go look at it every once in a while!