One of the theme parks with as long a history as Disneyland, Santa's Village was located in the San Bernadino Mountains. The park opened a couple of months before Disneyland and was built in another two locations. Unfortunately, the Lake Arrowhead park closed in the late 1990s and the Santa Cruz park closing in the 1970s. One park still remains open outside of Chicago, although it has changed quite a bit. However, the rides for the Lake Arrowhead park were auctioned off after closing, with some of the rides making it all the way to Oregon. I managed to get a nice grouping of signs, some stationary and the hats worn by the employees.
The main focal point of these parks is the always frozen North Pole. Basically a large pole with freezer coils running in it to keep a sheet of ice on the pole. Other parks based on Santa's theme have these poles, including the one located in Colorado Springs, Colorado whose name is North Pole. If you are in the Colorado area, I recommend a trip to the park to revisit a classic Santa's Village style park.
Monday, March 06, 2006
The North Pole, Santas Village Lake Arrowhead, California 1960
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5 comments:
Well - if this doesn't bring Cozart crawling out of the woodwork - I don't know what will!
I want to see pics of the signs you have from the park. The nicest thing I have from SV is a letter from June 13, 1955 inviting the person to the June 25th opening and private press party for the park.
Dan- the signs are all packed up. When I get to them, I will photograph them for you. They are all small signs and most are pretty bad hand painted.
And the P.O.P. sign for that matter!
Allright- you got me there. I promise the next time I am at my parents house, I will take a digital image of the sign.
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