Don Hanson's Amusement Park

 

III. Auction

In early August 1984 Don Hanson announced he was closing the park in September, when an auction of park rides and equipment would be held. The new ride inspection law was too costly, when the park already regularly inspected its rides. The insurance premium in 1984 was hiked by 600 percent, from $7,200 to $42,000 annually. Decreased patronage and weather issues were also factors and the park rides were not profitable for several years. After the September auction, however, Don Hanson would continue to maintain the restaurant, bar, beach, marina and campground. In the meantime, the Luzerne County Transportation Authority ended its once daily bus service to and from Wilkes-Barre and the Lake effective Monday, August 27. 1984.

An article in the Citizens Voice on August 8, 1984, covered Don Hanson's announcement:

 

Although the park has seen better days, over the past few years it still held onto its serene setting and maintained an atmosphere of days gone by. After a drive around the eight-mile lake or some sun and swimming, many families would complete their day with a stop at the popular park.

Now, due to rising costs and lack of interest among the community, Donald Hanson, proprietor, will have to auction off all rides on September 26, and close the park for good.

At one time, stated Hanson, the park was one of the largest in the valley in which school and church picnics were held. Now, said Hanson, it is his understanding that a new amusement park law has come into existence that deals with monthly inspections at a cost of $100 a ride which totals an extra $1,500 a month added expense. Carnivals are even in worse shape, Hanson continued, since all of its rides must be inspected each time a move is made to a new location.

A few years ago, Hanson recognized that family camping was a popular recreation and opened a portion of the park to include 65 hook-ups for campers and a large area specifically set aside for camping tents.

 

At the same time in early August 1984, James and Carleen McCaffrey, owners of Sandy Bottom Beach since 1954, announced their beach would also close at the end of the season. Admission to Sandy Bottom was $2.75 per day to park a car and to use the beach. In 1986 it would open as the private Harveys Lake Beach Club, Inc.

Hanson's extended its closing date from Sunday, September 9 to Sunday, September 16, 1984, which was partly sunny with a high of 60 degrees. Oddly, area newspapers did not cover the final day the amusement park was operating. The Times Leader did publish an article on September 3, 1984, about the park's closure and future:

 

HARVEYS LAKE - Grab for the brass ring at Don Hanson's Amusement Park while there's time.

You only have six days left.

Then the wooden horses will be still, the tilt-a-whirl will stop whirling and Don Hanson's Amusement Park will close.

The Hansons decided to close the park because a new state amusement park inspection law which goes into effect in January could cost them several thousand dollars a year, Bruce Hanson said recently.

In addition, he said attendance at the park has been decreasing during the past few years.

On Sept, 26, auctioneers will arrive to try to sell most of the 15 rides still in operation.

...

The Hansons' plan to expand their 165-site campground which is currently located behind the amusement park, Shirley Hanson said recently. The restaurant, bar and arcade located on the lake road will remain in operation, and the dance hall above the restaurant will be converted into apartments.

Hanson's Marina, located across from the restaurant, will also be changing.

Currently the family operates a public beach there, rents boat slips for summer and winter storage and operates a gas pump for boats.

Next year, about 30 more slips will be built and row boat rentals and bumper boats will be added, Bruce Hanson said.

 

The September 27 auction sale began with 104 lots of arcade items. After the arcade the sale moved outside and would continue in a general clockwise direction around the park. The principal adult rides for sale were the Tilt-A-Whirl; Merry-Maker; Octopus; Big Eli Ferris Wheel; Bisch-Rocco Flying Scooter; 6-Cage Swinging Gym; Pretzel Dark Ride; and the Roller Coaster for its salvage value (It did not sell).

The Kiddie Rides for sale were the Bitler Miniature Train; A.H. Skyfighter; Pinto Fire Engines; A.H. Tanks; Schiff Hi-Lo Coaster; Mangels Dry-Boats; Pinto Pony Carts; Kiddie Whip; Kiddie Cars; and the 30' inflatable moonwalk. A video on this site of the Bittler Miniature Train at the park in July 1984 is HERE.

There were also scores of miscellaneous park items for sale including six famed Allen Herschell all-wood painted carousel horses.

An extended article by Andrea Jackson from the Times Leader on September 27 describes the historic auction of the park on Wednesday, September 27, 1984, at 1:00 PM:

 

HARVEYS LAKE - The weathered white latticework of the huge roller coaster stood like the bleached bones of some prehistoric animal at the edge of the amusement park.

The roller coaster is positioned like a brightly dressed palace guard at the entrance to Hanson's Amusement Park off Route 415, near Harvey's Lake.

The physical assets of the park were scattered Wednesday as auctioneers moved in to parcel out the rides, prizes and other items, some of which had been at the site overlooking Harveys Lake for close to 80 years.

Sept. 16 marked the official demise of the park, which had been a Wyoming Valley fixture for over half a century. The last tickets were collected on that day and the last countless thousands of happy riders were whirled, twirled and flung around the nearly 20 rides at the amusement park.

The park has been owned by the Hanson family since 19[30].... The park simply died from obsolescence, according to Bruce Hanson.

The evolution of amusement parks from small, family-run enterprises to corporate chains of huge, glittery theme parks, along with the increasing popularity of state-run parks, spelled the end for Hanson's, he said.

A new state law goes into effect next year that requires monthly inspections of amusement park rides by licensed inspectors. That was also a factor in the family's decision to close the park, Hanson said. He said, the inspections would probably have been so costly for the park to profitably absorb, adding that rides at Hanson's were already being inspected by the park employees daily.

"We literally had thousands of people," Hanson said when asked how many people had passed through the gates over a span of 54 years. "It'd be nothing to see 30 or 40 buses here on Sundays, that was in the heyday in the '50s and '60s," he said.

The '70s and '80s weren't as kind to Hanson's Amusement Park, however. "The rides haven't been profitable for six, seven or eight years," Hanson admitted.

"It's the end of one era and the start of another for the Hanson family," he said. "It's mixed emotions today, it's sadness along with happiness," said Hanson.

If Hanson's amusement park officially expired on Sept. 16, then Wednesday - when all the rides, games, prizes and other items were sold at auction - was the funeral.

As the sun shone brightly on the blowing fall leaves around the midway, hundreds of people respectfully gathered to watch the somber disposal of the rides and carnival games that had, for so long, provided pleasure for so many.

For the most part, they were quiet; few came to buy, most came only to look.

"Curiosity, to see what would happen with the demise of the park," said Betty Ann Sedeski, 35, of Beaumont, when asked why she came to Hanson's one last time. She said she was sorry to see the amusement park go [.]

Others, however, came to the park on business. Amusement park officials from as far away as Quebec came to watch Norton Auctioneers of Michigan efficiently dispose of the park's physical assets.

Robert Hawkins, of Hawkins Amusement Park in Rome, N.Y., said he tries to visit as many amusement-park auctions as possible. "We're just checking on all the auctions," he said. "Buying equipment if it's OK. It's interesting, you learn the value of your equipment."

The buyers and the curious alike watched intently, as one by one, for one last time, the park's rides came to life. Like a scene from a late-night horror movie, the rides, creaking and groaning, spewing fumes and dust, went through their paces, usually smoothly, sometimes haltingly.

This time, however, there were no passengers on board. The rider-less [children's] roller coaster screeched over rusty, undulating rails as the crowd quietly looked on. Brightly-painted miniature metal boats wobbled around in a circle under a tired-looking wooden roof.

The animated sounds of the auctioneer echoed around the deserted buildings at the park.

Unless one listened closely, it could well have been the sound of a carnival barker hawking his games of chance and skill.

David A. Norton, president of the auction house that handled this sale, said his firm takes care of about 10 to 15 auctions like this each year. Norton stands on a portable cart as he goes through his blindingly fast sing-song sales pitch; the cart is wheeled from ride to ride as the buyers and the onlookers make a ragged circle around the park grounds.

As Norton goes through his rapid dialogue at the site of the "Flying Scooter," a ride consisting of airplane shaped pods dangling precariously from metal chains, he is having trouble getting his asking price of $7,500.

He drops the asking price to $2,000; a short, elderly man motions with a cigar he's holding in his hand and the bidding's on. After some prodding, and a little competitive bidding, Harry Prince, for $2,750, is the new owner of the ride.

Prince, who doesn't have much time to talk as he quickly moved to the next item for sale, said he owns an amusement park in North Dartmouth, Mass.

Bruce Hanson brought his camera to record memories of this last day. He said the land where ferris wheels, kiddie cars and merry-go-rounds once stood is being reclaimed for new, more profitable uses.

The Hansons plan on expanding their picnic area and campgrounds on the lane as soon as the last of the rides of yesteryear are hauled away.

 

There is no complete listing of the fate of the Hanson rides. The Bitler Miniature Train was purchased for $4,500 by James K. Bonham (1937-2016) for his Bonham Nursing Home on Bonnieville Road, midway between Shickshinny and Benton. Bonham reconstructed the trackage and train assembly and renewed its operation at Bonham's park along Pine Creek on Sunday, July 21, 1985, for the pleasure of the facility's residents and guests. Bonham named it the Bonnieville and Pine Creek Railroad and it operated though 2017 with only limited operation in 2018. It requires wheel-assembly and other repairs and remains in storage.

 

The Kiddie Land pony carts ride was purchased for Conneaut Lake Park in Crawford County in northwestern Pennsylvania. The children's dry-boats ride was sold to S&S Amusements in Scott Township, PA. The fire trucks ride was acquired by Vollmer's Park in Bowling Green, OH. Harry Prince, co-owner of Lincoln Amusement Park, in N. Dartmouth, MA, bought the Flying Scooter. Hanson's Big Eli Ferris Wheel, children's roller-coaster and kiddie cars ride was sold to an unidentified Detroit, MI, bidder. The Merry-Mixer was sold to an unidentified Wisconsin buyer, and the Octopus to an unidentified Long Island, NY, buyer. The Speed Hound Roller-Coaster cars were sold to Home Amusements in Rockville, MD.

The auction did not include the park's merry-go-round. When John A. Redington opened the rebuilt park in 1910, Alfred Wintersteen, a milk dealer, was likely one of Redington's silent partners in a new unincorporated Harvey's Lake Park Company, or alternatively Wintersteen was a critical concessionaire at the park. Wintersteen very likely purchased the famed 1909 Looff-Mangels merry-go-round as his personal concession beginning in the 1910 season. He paid the final installment for the carousel to the W. F. Mangels Company, Coney Island, NY, in November 1914. Late in the decade Wintersteen was also the manager of the park's restaurant. By 1923 Redington and Wintersteen were clearly formal business associates and Redington leased the park to the Wintersteens, while Redington developed Lakeview Terrace, which he also owned, for residential lot development.

When Netti Wintersteen sold her half-interest in the park in 1935 to John E. Hanson, the Wintersteen connection to the carousel since 1910 compelled her to retain ownership of the ride. It would remain a source of income for her and a legacy for her family.

The carousel, by descent or sale, eventually passed to Genevieve Wintersteen Fisk whose son, Delmar K. Fisk, operated the carousel for years. Then the carousel transferred to a nephew Robert D. Wintersteen and his wife Mary Ann Wintersteen. The beloved Robert D. Wintersteen died at age 38 in March 1981. In July 1985 the Robert D. Wintersteen Memorial Recreation Center across from the Lake-Noxen school was named for Robert, a former member of the borough council. Similarly, while Hanson owned the pavilion which housed the Dodgem ride, the Wintersteen family owned the Dodgem ride, which was not in the auction nor the Wintersteen Crazy-Cups ride. A link to video footage of the Wintersteen carousel at the park on July 4, 1984, elsewhere on this site is HERE.

Earlier published accounts that the carousel arrived at the Harvey's Lake park in 1915 were found to be in error. Rather, a carousel was installed in 1915 at the trolley company's park on top of Oneonta Hill at Sunset.

During 1987-1996 the Wintersteen carousel was relocated to the Old Town complex in Kissimmee, FL., and then to International Market World in Auburndale , Fl. In March 2008 the carousel was listed for auction in Florida by Norton Auctioneers but it was withdrawn from the April 23 sale. The carousel was returned to the Lake area and placed in storage. A Save the Carousel campaign sought to raise funds to reestablish the carousel in the area, perhaps at Hillside Farms, but the campaign faltered. In November 2019 it was announced that the Wintersteen carousel was sold to a partnership based in Salisbury Beach, MA, awaiting plans for its operation. A link to the Wintersteen carousel at Old Town, Fl., elsewhere on this site is HERE.

 

 

Copyright May 2020 F. Charles Petrillo