Welcome to Action Park, Famous for "Poorly Designed, Unsafe Rides"

Take a trip to New Jersey in the late '80s, where nothing was fine.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Action Park, the spectacularly unsafe New Jersey amusement park, was a nightmare. Everyone should know about it. In a beautiful twist of luck, it turns out that the Wikipedia entry for the the park is stunning, a bracing bit of reportage full of black comedy and broken dreams.

That said, it is full of words, lots of words and few pictures. To remedy this, here is an illustrated (though abridged) version of the highly-regarded Wiki entry, using vintage photos and screen grabs from classic commercials to tell the sad and strange tale. Welcome to Action Park.

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Action Park was an amusement park, open from 1978 to 1996 in Vernon Township, New Jersey at the former Vernon Valley/Great Gorge ski area, now known as Mountain Creek.

It featured three separate attraction areas: an alpine slide, Motorworld, and Waterworld. The latter-most was one of the first American waterparks. Many of Action Park's attractions were unique, attracting thrill-seekers from across the New York City metro area. The park's popularity went hand in hand with a reputation for poorly designed, unsafe rides; inattentive, underage employees; intoxicated, unprepared visitors; and the consequently poor safety record.

At least six people are known to have died as a result of mishaps on rides at the park. It was given nicknames such as "Traction Park" and "Accident Park," by doctors at nearby hospitals due to the number of severely injured park-goers they treated. Little action was taken by state regulators despite a history of repeat violations. In its later years personal-injury lawsuits forced the closure of more and more rides and finally the park itself in 1996.

Intrawest purchased the property and in 1998, many of the water attractions were reopened as Mountain Creek Waterpark. With a vastly increased emphasis on ride safety, the alpine slide and Motorworld areas were eliminated and some new water attractions were added. In 2010, the whole Mountain Creek ski area and waterpark was sold to a group led by Eugene Mulvihill, the former operator of Great Gorge and Action Park.

[via Wikipedia]

History

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Alpine Slide

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Motorworld

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Air Rides

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Looping Water Slide

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The Tidal Wave Pool

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The Tarzan Swing

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Super Speed Water Slides

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Diving Cliffs

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Raging Rapids

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Surf Hill

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Fatalities

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Legacy

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Action Park was a cultural touchstone for many Generation Xers who grew up in North and Central Jersey, as well as nearby locales in New York and Connecticut. A popular list of "You Know You're from New Jersey When ..." that circulates in email begins with, "You've been seriously injured at Action Park."

Some even credit the park for making them learn some difficult lessons. In 2000, one, Matthew Callan, recalled Action Park thus:


Action Park made adults of a generation of Tri-State Area kids who strolled through its blood-stained gates, by teaching us the truth about life: it is not safe, you will get hurt a lot, and you'll ride all the way home burnt beyond belief.

Chris Gethard, a writer for Weird NJ and the associated book series, concurs:


Action Park was a true rite of passage for any New Jerseyan of my generation. When I get to talking about it with other Jerseyans, we share stories as if we are veterans who served in combat together. I suspect that many of us may have come closest to death on some of those rides up in Vernon Valley. I consider it a true shame that future generations will never know the terror of proving their grit at New Jersey's most dangerous amusement park.

On August 1, 1993, MTV's Headbanger's Ball taped an episode at the park. The host, Riki Rachtman, interviewed and went on the rides with the band Alice In Chains.

[via Wikipedia]

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