Kinda creepy.

Kinda real creepy.

I love abandoned amusement parks (I've been out here a few times, and I hope to visit here someday). Thanks, BP!

Those both look FASCINATING, box! I've never been to a closed-up amusement park myself, but have always wanted to.

You know That Shot? The empty merry-go-round slowly rotating in the wind with an echo-ey recording of girls singing "Ring Around The Rosie"?

That's what this reminds me of.

There used to be a rinky-dink little amusement park in I-35 north of Austin. We passed it on car trips a bunch when I was a kid. It had a Matterhorn replica, and I don't remember quite what else. It was creepy to me even when it was open. I have no idea why -- I think I always just imagined that the inside of the Matterhorn was scary somehow. [Dad never let us stop to find out. :( ]

Anyway, it shut down in the early 80s and decayed, though it stood there for many years afterwards, just getting creepier.

It was so creepy after its death that it was used as a location in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

This is so interesting. Great photos. It really made me think about "lost" civilizations and other abandoned structures of empire, like Maya temples. How fascinating for future archaeologists, let alone urban explorers today.

Oh man, box. Is Dogpatch USA still around in any form or fashion? I went there a few times in the early-mid 80's, along with a bunch of trips to Silver Dollar City and Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun in KC a handful of times. Obviously, my folks preferred regional travel.

I remember Dogpatch from kidhood, too. Something about goats on a roof.

This park is being renovated and will open in a few years as Spongebob Squarepants land or something like that. I vaguely remember hearing something about it on the news recently.

That's good news! Because no town benefits from having a closed-up amusement park in it, regardless of the cool photo opps.