More snapshots from Magic Mountain in 1972. What is so striking about the park is the emptiness and the wide open spaces of the park. Unlike so many amusement parks these days with rides twisting in and between each other. The rides do appear to be fun rides and the roller coaster built on the hill is pretty fun. I think it is still there and is the Gold Rusher. Unfortunately the cameral used to take the images causes a slight blurriness.
WOW, neat shots of early MM. My grandparents took me and my brother in June of 1971. My most vivid memory of that day was how big and open the place was and all that Valencia grass was just starting to grow everywhere around the park.
ReplyDeleteNice and rare shot of ElBumpo! I loved that ride, Bumber cars on the water! Does anyone else remember that funky smell of gas and murky warm water on that ride?
I always like the Trolls, I still miss them. The wizard guy still freaks me out however!
I hope they bring back the METRO! (my favorite MM ride, yes, I know).
Thanks so much for posting these!
Tim
These bring back a lot of great memories, I think I first went to Magic Mountain around 1972. I'd forgotten that they had their own "Autopia".
ReplyDeleteYeah, went there the first week it opened. Remember mostly that there was a lot of heat and very little shade. Not like today - it's very park like.
ReplyDeleteLoved El Bumpo but it didn't last long! And Gold Rusher was considered pretty intense back then!
yeah, i also went the week it opened, i think there were something like 5 rides working. similarly el bumpo was a total favorite, as well as the little carnival style arcade where you could win stuffed animals. got any pictures of the magic pagoda, that was one of my favorites and i've never seen any good pics of it.
ReplyDeleteVery insteresting cars. I wonder where they had them built?
ReplyDeleteI first visited MM in it's first month. It was arid and barren. Gold Rusher IS still there, but upstaged by the many much better coasters built since.
ReplyDeleteWhat is so weird, and has been driving me NUTS all year long, is that MM has been running a television ad campaign all year about MM celebrating it's "45th Anniversary." That is insane! It is it's 35th anniversary, but the current owners, who nearly closed the park to sell off the real estate, care so little for it, that they have gotten it's history wrong BY 10 YEARS! It's been months now, and the campaign is STILL RUNNING! Someone MUST have pointed out their enormous error to them by now, but they are just ignoring it and continuing to insist that the park was built a decade before it was.
They are cretins!
It's nice to identify exactly where you are standing in the old photo. That race track photo is where Tidal Wave is on the left side of Ace's BBQ is and looking north. The track is sticking out a bit past the facing of Ace's BBQ building. Thus the Ace's BBQ should be just on the right off the photo as the race track protruded south a bit. Ace's BBQ building skimmed the monorail track on it's North side. We are looking North West in the photo. To the left is the exit for Riddlers.
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