One of Kennywood’s Greatest Dark Rides, Page 3

Dave Hahner

Fire!

Ghost Ship was an extremely popular dark ride within the park. It might still be here today, but as luck would have it, tragedy struck on June 19, 1975. Just two months into Kennywood’s season, an electrical fire developed within the dark ride, and the entire ride, not to mention the history of the dance hall pavilion itself, were completely lost. Fortunately, no one was injured during the blaze. A quick thinking ride attendant led the passengers out before the building became engulfed. Also lost in the blaze were the park’s Cuddle-Up ride, then called the Road Runner, which was also located in the building on the far left side directly behind the Golden Nugget refreshment stand. Miraculously, this refreshment stand survived the blaze and still is serving Kennywood’s unique sundae cones to the public. Two kiddie rides in nearby Kiddieland were also lost, the park’s original kiddie whip and the German automobile carousel ride. The park’s Round Up ride, called the Satellite then, located to the right of the building was badly damaged, and considerable damage was done to the park’s Calypso ride which sat to the right of the Round Up. Fortunately, this was the last major fire to occur at Kennywood.

The park never closed during the fire that day, they just cordoned off the area from the public as firefighters put out the blaze. During the rest of the season, after the fire damaged structures were razed, sod was planted in the affected area. And if you had never been to Kennywood before that time, you would never had known anything had existed there. In subsequent years, a games building was built behind the Golden Nugget, which later became a pizza stand. The Round Up ride was replaced with a new one and the Calypso was repaired and returned back into operation. A new fountain was installed in front of what is now the Pizza stand with a plaque dedicated to the Kenny family whose farm this land was before Kennywood was founded. Over the years since the fire, different rides replaced the Calypso and Round-Up including a Ranger and a Swing-a-Round. The Round-Up was shipped to Kennywood’s sister park, Idlewild, while the Calypso was sold to another park. A new Cuddle-Up was purchased and placed elsewhere in the park until it was permanently removed during the mid1980’s. In 1986, the 85 foot high Wonder Wheel permanently replaced all of these rides, including the area that onced housed the dance hall. Although for many it may appear that this section of Kennywood had always looked like this. But for those who visited the park before June 19, 1975 know that a once great dark ride once proudly took passengers deep into the spooky recesses of a long sunken Ghost Ship!

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This article ©2000 Dave Hahner and NAPHA. Special thanks to NAPHA News for giving us permission to reprint this article.
All photos ©copyright, and generously provided by, Kennywood Archive; all used with permission.