Fairyland Park; Dad's Story of a Wonderful Car Trip To Kansas City

I remember Dad always telling us in the early 1960's about an amusement park in Kansas City and how we all were going to go one day. I dreamed of this park and the fun we would have! We never got to go, but it kept me dreaming and hoping of the trip for a long time. I still remember him telling us about Fairyland Park, it was like a billion miles away and just as well might had been.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairyland_Park
Fairyland


Kansas City, Mo.

1923 - 1977

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While on a business trip to Kansas City recently, I looked up the locations of the three defunct amusement parks that I had heard of.

What's left of Fairmont Park (1897-1930s) seems to be just a grassy picnic-type public park. And a housing complex now stands where Electric Park (1907-1925) was once located, leaving no remains of the park.
However, there are still a few crumbled remains of the third park, Fairyland.

Fairyland opened in 1880 as a trolley park. It was built at the south end of the Prospect Ave. trolley line, at 75th St. and Prospect Ave.

It was a great park that had everything; a wooden roller coaster, games, pool, dancing, picnic area, kiddie and adult rides.

Fairyland was owned by the Brancato family, who loved the park so much, they chose to live inside it.

The original wooden coaster "Sky Ride" lasted until 1966. It suffered damage from an intense wind storm in late summer of '66 when the back "turn-around" collapsed. A new, steel "Wildcat" coaster was built for the 1967 season.
In its day, the park was hit by a few disasters. There was a fire in 1938 and lightning struck and damaged a ride in 1942.
But, even so, Fairyland stood as the only amusement park in Kansas City for about 50 years.

Worlds of Fun Amusement Park was built in 1973. And, even though they were at opposite ends of the city, almost 20 miles apart, Fairyland quickly fell to the newer, more modern Worlds of Fun.

Mario Brancato passed away in April of 1977. After a successful season, Fairyland closed in September, 1977. When it was hit by a tornado in 1978, Fairyland never again opened its gates.

The steel coaster was disassembled and trucked down to Frontier City in Oklahoma City in 1988 where it is now the star attraction. The ferris wheel was relocated to an unknown location.

** Some of the above information was supplied by Chuck Fisher, a former Fairyland employee.

Trolley Park was the term used to define a park that was built at the end of a trolley line. Usually at the outskirts of town.


In the days before automobiles were widely affordable, people in the cities took trolleys to work, shopping, etc., during the week. But, trolley companies found that their weekend ridership would sag.



So they came up with the idea to build parks at the end of their lines to prompt people to ride on the weekends, too.



People could now enjoy the trolley ride to the scenic suburbs for an afternoon of fun in the countryside.



Most of these parks died in the 1930's, due in part to the Depression, and in part to the popularity of the automobile making more diverse destinations possible.