Dutch Wonderland Auction Sign
I was at Dutch Wonderland today to catch Happy Hauntings before it closes for 2013 and I noticed on the one entrance sign they were announcing an auction for November 4th. I wondered WHAT they were auctioning. Well, turns out I didn’t have to wonder since I could just wander through the things up for auction. Nobody stopped me as I snapped pictures of the items. It was the Statue of Liberty that made me notice them. She looked out of place next to the maintenance building. The statue used to be visible from the Gondola Cruise.
Lady Liberty and Ferris Windmill cars
Here is where the statue used to live.
Statue of Liberty 2011
In case you weren’t aware, Dutch Wonderland has made significant changes to the island area of the park. I’ve heard they are using that area for a new turnpike location in 2014 and also that the Riverboats will become safari cruisers in 2015. Not sure how much of that will actually happen (the Breyers shop in front of the park was supposed to become a restaurant but that never happened either.)
Here is a photo of the island demolition from April 2013, you can just see the Statue of Liberty in the distance on the right side and the ferris windmill support in the center (it is blue.)
2013 Island Demolition
As you might have guessed from the photo above, also a casualty of this new island development is the Ferris Windmill. This ride has been in place in the park at least since the 1970′s since I rode it when I went there as a child. I was hoping they would find a home for it someplace else in the park but I guess that wasn’t to be. Sad to see it go. Here is a picture of it from April 2013 when only the tower remained after construction was underway (this is from the back). You can see the red and blue gondolas sitting on the ground behind the fence.
Ferris Windmill During Demolition – 4/28/13
And here it was all in one piece back in 2011.
Ferris Windmill 6-24-11
You can see more pictures from the auction and Dutch Wonderland on my Flickr page here.
And just because I’m learning to love YouTube, here is a video of a girl named Annabelle on the Ferris Windmill from back in 2012.
You can also see the island pre-construction in this gondola video from last year.