Some of America’s Oldest Amusement Parks are in PA

Pennsylvania has a lot of amusement parks, and some of them are very old. While PA only has 3 parks on the top 10 list officially, many parks in operation today were founded in the 19th century.

Idlewild was founded by Thomas Mellon (Mellon Bank) to boost his railroad business. Dorney Park started off as a fish hatchery, but turned into a park when it was making more money from visitors than selling fish. Conneaut Lake sits on a massive 200 acres and is located next to PA’s largest glacial lake. Lakemont Park has the world’s oldest operating roller coaster.

Williams Grove (Mechanicsburg) was in operation from 1850 to 2005 and would be the oldest park in the country if it would have stayed open.


 

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