Holy Cow! I finally found some film footage of Gettysburg's long lost theme park,
Fantasyland. Somebody uploaded to YouTube about 12 minutes of family home movies including 2 minutes of a visit to the defunct Fantasyland park.
Just click on this link to see about two minutes of silent footage shot on 8MM. You'll see the park's iconic entrance through a giant story book. The structure of the book was still standing as recently as 2002, but has since been destroyed. The film also shows kids on a sliding board attraction. Research shows the park did have a sliding board in The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe's house, but this appears to be more of a castle structure...perhaps Rapunzel's Castle which is also reported to have been an attraction at the park.
There is also some footage of kids playing around a giant farmer with a huge apple. This display was sponsored by Musselman's Apple Sauce, who along with their parent company own three factories in the area.
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| Mr. Musselman - A Musselman processing plant in nearby Chambersburg, PA was bought by parent company Knouse Foods in 1949 and was used to produce one product...applesauce! |
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| Vintage Newspaper Ad |
The park's train - The Cannonball Express - can also be seen in the footage.
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Vintage Postcard
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Holy Cow! I finally found some film footage of Gettysburg's long lost theme park, Fantasyland. Somebody uploaded to YouTube about 12 minutes of family home movies including 2 minutes of a visit to the defunct Fantasyland park. Just click on this link to see about two minutes of silent footage shot on 8MM. You'll see the park's iconic entrance through a giant story book. The structure of the book was still standing as recently as 2002, but has since been destroyed. The film also shows kids on a sliding board attraction. Research shows the park did have a sliding board in The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe's house, but this appears to be more of a castle structure...perhaps Rapunzel's Castle which is also reported to have been an attraction at the park.
4 comments:
Love these historical views!
I love the nostalgic look of that old 8mm footage. Great find.
When I was about 9 years old my uncle and aunt took me to Fantasyland...I loved it. One of my favorite childhood memories ever!
I just stumbled across this online. Thank you to who posted this. I live in Thurmont and so this was basically right in my back yard. My cousins who I grew up with lived in Waynesboro. Every year as soon as school was out my Mother and my Aunt and my Grandmother would schedule a Fantasy Land date. I remember being so excited to go and we had just the best time there. I have not thought about that place in many years. I wish something like that was still around. Awesome memories!
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