Rocky Glen Park


Known by a variety of names over its 101-year existence, Rocky Glen Park was a park near Moosic, Pennsylvania. Founded by Arthur Frothingham in 1886 as a picnic park, it was transformed into an amusement park by engineer and entrepreneur Frederick Ingersoll in 1904. The trolley park was a popular Pennsylvania attraction that featured rides, arcades, and restaurants – even as a "wild west" theme park in the 1970s – until its closure in 1987.

History

Land developer Arthur Frothingham purchased the site for $15 at a tax sale in 1885. The following year, Rocky Glenn was open to the public as a picnic park. About 1900, Frothingham contracted E. S. Williams to dam Dry Valley Run Creek to create a lake on the property; when Frothingham failed to pay Williams for the work, Williams sued and was awarded one-half interest in the park.
Soon afterward, Frothingham obtained a Pennsylvania state cemetery charter for the park after learning of plans of extending tracks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad over the grounds. To avoid losing the park via eminent domain, Frothingham interred two bodies in the proposed route of the track; the Lehigh Valley Railway purchased a parcel of the cemetery for $25,000 and agreed to build a Laurel Line station nearby.
In 1904, Frederick Ingersoll added amusement park rides and concessions, and the newly rechristened Rocky Glen Park, named after the newly-formed Rocky Glen Water Company, became a local sensation. The following year saw the debut of Ingersoll's signature figure eight roller coaster as the Pittsburgh engineer started diverting his energies to his soon-to-open Luna Parks in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. A rift between park owner Frothingham and park manager Ingersoll led to the parting of their ways in 1906.
Interest in the park waned in the 1910s, and Frothingham wished to sell his half of the property. After failed attempts to sell the park to MGM and Federal Feature Film Corporation of New York, Williams and Frothingham sold it to a trio of businessmen in 1919. After a tumultuous period in which the three partners disagreed about park management, Sterling ultimately gained complete control in 1950 and renamed the park Sterling's Rocky Glen, the name he used for his half of the park when it was divided.
By 1945, Rocky Glen Park's popularity was on the upswing when Sterling added the Million Dollar Coaster, a 96-foot-tall, 4700-foot-long, out-and-back roller coaster that became the park's new signature attraction. Despite its name, the ride cost Sterling only $100,000 to build. Shoehorned between Glen Lake and the tracks of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad, it was one of the world's largest roller coasters at the time. It carried more than one million passengers in the first three years of its existence.
The post-World War II increase in the use of the automobile contributed to the gradual decline in the use of the railroad, and the few remaining trolley parks were slowly fading into the sunset. Sterling's/Rocky Glen was no exception, and by 1970, Ben Sterling opted to sell the park to an Atlanta, Georgia-based entertainment company, National Recreation Service.
The new owners promptly converted the grounds into a theme park, renaming it Ghost Town in the Glen and gave it a western theme. The rebranding was not successful: the park changed hands once again in 1979 and became New Rocky Glen. The lake became a venue for concerts starting in 1980. The park closed for the last time in 1987.

Roller Coaster History

Rocky Glen was home to several large roller coasters in its history:
The Clifford Twp. Volunteer Fire Company in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania is home to the 2nd miniature railroad that once existed at Rocky Glen Park. The train is a John A. Miller Company ride and added to Rocky Glen back in 1924 as a part of the Nallin-Jennings Park's side of Rocky Glen as the park at the time was split into two. It operated in the same area the 1st Miniature Railroad did in 1904 with a slightly different path, which in the 1980's would be where the Jet Coaster was located. The railroad operated until the early 1950's, when Nallin-Jennings's side of Rocky Glen suffered the Fire of 1950, which destroyed Nallin-Jennings's 3 major rides including the Pippin Coaster, The Fun House and the Tokio Canal water ride along with Ben Sterling's Penny Arcade on May 24, 1950. With barely anything left but a few rides, what was left of Nallin-Jennings's side was sold to Benjamin & Lena Balka in December 1950, who in turn immediately sold it to Ben & Mae Sterling, who were the owners of the other half of the park in January 1951. Because Sterling now had control of the whole park, during the years of 1951 to 1954 they began removing the duplication of rides that existed on both sides of the park and, by 1954, finally tore down the back half of the Pippin Coaster which stood for 4 years. Sterling had his own Miniature Railroad that went out along the "Million Dollar" Roller Coaster and was a much better attraction because of the proximity to the lake and large coaster. The now-former Nallin-Jennings Miniature Railroad was 'dismantled' and then sold by new owner Ben Sterling to persons from the Clifford Township Volunteer Fire Company, where it has remained with some modifications over the years to keep it going. As of 2020, it will be its 96th year in operation.

Interesting facts