Beech Bend Park
Bowling Green, KY
By: Rick Davis
The Muse of Beech Bend
William Helm Brashear (1855-1942) grew up on his family's Kentucky farm in the Big Bend area of the Barren River in an era of much simpler pleasures. Brashear was content to tend the family farm, but he did go on to study law and was licensed to practice in 1880. For whatever reason he never chose to become a lawyer though; he chose instead to see the West. After spending some time presumably enjoying some wild west adventures, his curiosity was apparently satisfied and he eventually returned to the Big Bend area where he returned to farming.
In 1898 he saw an opportunity earn a little extra income and turned a portion of his land into a small picnic park that he called Beech Woods. Initially, the park hosted church picnics, but still the entrepreneur, Brashear then built an open-air dancing platform as a new form of entertainment for his guests. Dancing grew in popularity over the years and in 1920 Brashear built a two-story pavilion with the upper floor being a dance hall, and the lower floor being a kitchen and dining room.
Dancing was not the only form of entertainment at the park; visitors in the early 1900's also enjoyed a shooting gallery (housed in a tent), croquet, fishing, and other diversions.
At some point in the early days of the park the area took on the name Beech Bend. "Beech" referred to the Beech trees that lined the river banks and "Bend" referring to the fact that the Barren River made a large sweeping turn there, changing course by about 180 degrees.
Just as the river changed course at Beech Bend, so did William Brashear. While he had his hands full tending his park and his garden market, he also found time to become an accomplished writer. His poetry was often featured in local newspapers and magazines. The highlight of this second career was the publication of his book entitled The Varied Voices From The Muse Of Beech Bend in 1905.
An Amusement Park Is Born
Beech Bend remained basically a picnic park until the death of William Brashear in 1942. After Brashear's death, his family sold Beech Bend to Charles Garvin. Over the years, Garvin installed a roller rink, a pool, and a zoo as additional diversions at the park. Beech Bend was on its way to becoming an amusement park as we know it when he added pony rides in 1948.
He of course added mechanical rides soon after, the first of which being a Ferris wheel. His Wild Mouse roller coaster was one of the first of such rides in the country, but this was only the beginning of the innovative rides at Beech Bend.
The Pretzel darkride he installed in 1954 was one of the first in the country to feature the new rotating cars. (Cassidy's rotating car earned him an award for innovation at the amusement industry convention in 1953.) Unfortunately, little is known about this early darkride.
The 1960's brought with it a new era in the park's history. Overnight camp-ing was intro-duced to the park to encour-age longer visits and new attract-ions were intro-duced as well. A large double-decker darkride called Voyage A' La Lune, named for Jules Verne's classic 1865 story, became the park's second darkride. This Schwartzkoph ride, better known as Flight To Mars at other parks (such as Palisades), was a portable ride that occupied three semi trailers when racked. One interesting detail of the ride was its Calypso-like ride cars. Schwartzkoph apparently saw no need to design a new vehicle when the two seat Calypso cars could be modified for use.
In 1970 Funni-Frite of Columbus, Ohio started designing a walkthrough named the Voodoo Trail for the park. Based on a concept originally created around 1965, this funhouse would contain both dark and lit areas with plenty of gags. Let's take a trip back in time and get a ticket to the Voodoo Trail.
A Walk Down the Voodoo Trail
We enter through the front of the building through a doorway on the right. Immediately we are plunged into darkness. We feel our way down the hallway until we feel it make a turn to the left then we make a sharp U-turn to the right. The floor slopes slightly upward then back down, disorienting us a bit. Just as the floor levels out again, a switch hidden beneath the floor activates the laughing skulls right in front of us.
To the left of the skulls we enter the keyhole maze. After zigzagging through its keyhole shaped doorways, we negotiate the maze and we find Thing springing into action just outside the last doorway and to our right. Safely out of his reach, we make a quick left and right turn and encounter a door that allows us to leave the dark for a moment.
Looking straight ahead we realize that everything in this area is visible to spectators outside the funhouse. WE are the ballyhoo for the ride! The people outside will be laughing at US as we attempt to make our way through whatever embarrassing stunts await us. This area contains no walls, just handrails to guide us along our way.
Following the handrails we turn to the right, up a small ramp, then left and encounter our first challenge - the come and go boards. Having negotiating them without incident, we turn left and then to the right. Seeing no stunts ahead we confidently walk on and are surprised by the knocking floor but onward we go. We turn to the right where another hidden switch trips the falling barrels which we avoid by calmly throwing ourselves into the wall! At this point we are at the very front of the building and very visible to the laughing crowd gathering outside. Sheepishly walking by them we make a right turn and head back into the building. At least the embarrassing part is now over.
Just ahead is a turnstile we must go through to see the rest of the funhouse so we walk through it�well we TRY to walk through it but it won't budge! Funni-Frite has done it to us again! Still in full view of the spectators, we have encountered the trick turnstile. It was designed to turn opposite what we think it should. Once we figure it out , we go clockwise around it rather than straight through as you would expect. Thankfully, up ahead is a door that leads us back into the darkness.
Not far into the first darkened hallway we meet the devil crab and we then make a left turn where something is hitting our legs! SNAKES!! Snakes are loose in the dark! Well, not quite, it's the rubber snakes gag. Whew! We're glad the crowd outside didn't see us this time.
A right-hand U-turn and down a dark passage where suspense builds, and a gorilla jumps up to startle us, then a left turn brings us to a coffin to our right.
The next right turn brings us to another door which takes us back into the light again, but not safely away from the surprises. As we are nearing the end of the funhouse, some floor mounted air jets send the lady's skirts flying and only the cannibal remains to be seen. We exit the Voodoo Trail and join the crowd so that WE can join in laughing at the next group of unsuspecting guests!
End Of An Era
Other changes would take place at the park over the years as well. Racing became a big draw as the park added a paved oval track as well as a top-notch NHRA drag strip. Soon Beech Bend would become one of Kentucky's largest tourist destinations. One big change took place in the 1980's; country star Ronnie Milsap bought the park. That venture would be short lived, lasting from 1980-84 and ending at the court house doors.
Norton Auctioneers, the harbinger of a park's demise, would arrive to auction off the park August 27 & 28, 1984. The park would soon be a barren wasteland. As if to add insult to injury, the once state-of-the-art Pretzel darkride was removed by knocking out the front wall of its building. (Since the darkride was not listed on the auction flyer, it is possible this occurred before the auction.) The two large glass enclosures in the rides front wall would remain empty; no bally-hoo gags would beckon riders ever again.
David Garvin bought the property, but the park itself was gone after almost a century of existence.
A New Beginning
For most parks, this would be the end of our story, but most parks lacked Dallas Jones. After the park lay dormant for three years, Dallas Jones purchased the property from David Garvin. Believe it or not, when he purchased the park in 1987, his original intent was to put some goats out to pasture on the land! Obviously, Dallas had a change of heart and began the journey down the long road to bring the park back to life and, since that time, the park has indeed made a comeback.
In 1989 a Pretzel ride returned to the former Haunted House, not the original ride mind you, but a rotating Pretzel nonetheless. Beech Bend managed to locate a similar ride at the former Funland Park in Paducah, Kentucky. Like the other existing rides, these cars no longer rotate. The cars are fixed at the unusual angle you see in the photograph here.
While the original gags were long gone from Beech Bend's former darkride, there are two reminders of the original ride. According to the park, the exit door and a gorilla stunt are the only original parts remaining from the first Haunted House. The gorilla, seen at the right, is a rare beast, so to speak. It was created by the defunct "Amusement Display Creators" from Miami Florida and is thought to be one of three that still exist.
Where Pretzel stunts once entertained riders, today you will find a mix of old Funni-Frite gags and locally made or purchased decorations.
There are a few unusual features of the ride that go unnoticed by guests. The ride originally operated with three powered sections of track: the interior of the ride itself, the exit track, and the entrance. One switch applied power to the track to move the car from the loading platform to the interior of the track, one switch applied power to all of the interior track, and the third switch powered the track at the exit in order to move the car to the loading area. Today the ride is literally a one-button operation. The power was removed from the exterior track and the ride operators now push the cars manually from the exit to the loading area.
Other novel features of the ride that are not visible to riders are the ingenious switches and timers that actuate the stunts. With one exception, all of the switches were constructed in-house using common steel rod, tubing, angle stock, and screen door closers! The arm of the device is arranged so that the passing car pushes it forward, in the process closing a micro-switch, which in turn activates the gag and lighting. As the car goes by, a screen door spring helps pull the arm back to its starting position (slowed by the door closer), turning off the gag and lights. Simple, effective, and cheap!
Step inside and have a look around... if you dare!
The park itself has never been satisfied with the ride's interior and has asked for ideas to improve it on several occasions. Rumor has it that park is considering a total makeover of the ride for 2003. Since a recent report in the Bowling Green News said that Dallas Jones has put over $6 million worth of improvements into the park since 1997 and that he wants to add $4.5 million more in the next few years, could a new or greatly improved darkride be in the park's future? Time will tell!
This article ©2002 Rick Davis and used with permission.
Photos ©2000 Rick Davis, and used with permission.