The Williams family began hosting picnics in 1850 at a small grove located in the village of Williams Grove outside Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Within a few years, the grove was developed into a park. Two decades later, the park became the Mechanicsburg Fairgrounds. After World War I, the park's ownership changed hands several times. The first rides appeared at the park in 1928. The adjacent Williams Grove Speedway half-mile track opened in 1938. An entrepreneur named Morgan Hughes purchased the park in 1972 for $1.2 million. Several rides were relocated to Williams Grove from the defunct New Jersey Palisades Amusement Park, which closed in 1972. Williams Grove Park was nearly destroyed in the summer of the same year due to Hurricane Agnes, and subsequent flooding from nearby Yellow Breeches Creek. The park was rebuilt and operated through the end of the 2005 season, when the Hughes family decided to focus all of their energies on the Williams Grove Speedway. Hughes, who was in his mid-80s when the park closed, attempted to sell the property in 2006 to a prospective owner who would keep the park intact and operational, but was unable to find a buyer. Several rides were auctioned off the same year. Hughes died in his sleep at his Pennsylvania home on April 12, 2008 at age 88.
Rides
The Cyclone The Cyclone is a wooden roller coaster and was the main attraction of the park. The Cyclone rose to a height of 65 feet and travels at the top speed of 45 mph. Unfortunately, the Cyclone closed after the 2005 season, leaving it standing but not operational as of 2017, abandoned and in disrepair with the train parked at the loading station. The cars have since been returned to Fort Lee, NJ, where they will be displayed at a museum. In 2001, the park erected The Wildcat, a steel roller coaster. Upon the park's closing, the Wildcat was relocated to Adventure Park USA in New Market, Maryland. There were two smaller coasters, the Kiddie Coaster, from 1992 until the park's closing, and the Little Dipper, from 1950 until 1963. Fun Houses The park featured a dark ride called "Dante's Inferno", which is still standing, and it used to have a walk-through fun house called "Allotria" Water Slides In the early 1980s, the park erected one of the first water slides in the area. The slide's platform is still standing abandoned where the two watersides were.
