As noted by CHRON reports, its founder sold the park a few years after opening. Fame City Waterworks in Houston – 1986 – 2005įirst reported on by the New York Times in 1986, Fame City Waterworks was part of the Fame City amusement complex, with attractions including a lazy river, speed slides, and a play area for younger children. Company leadership called the park “unprofitable” in 1973 and said it would be converted into a sales promotion facility. However, despite the attractions, reports such as one from CHRON noted that the first year’s attendance fell short of the expected 800,000, which led to the company closing down most of its wild animal displays. Reports from the era also mentioned multiple attractions aimed at children, including a Ferris wheel and Sherpa Slide, and a boat-ride canal for visitors. Otherwise, the park was home to an elephant compound, a Bengal tiger temple, a rhinoceros compound, and a list of other animals and enclosures.
The park was advertised as having an “Asian” theme aside from an ice cave that hosted a range of penguins, polar bears and sea lions. Busch Gardens in Houston – 1971 -1973Īs noted by local archivists, Busch Gardens Houston opened in May 1971 near the Anheuser-Busch brewery. The land was purchased in 1996 by Automotive Investment Group and was replaced by a Grand Prairie Ford dealership in 1999. While reports following the accident noted that the park aimed at reopening for the 1993 season, but its gates never reopened. However, according to reports from the time via The Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle, an accident on the park’s “Pipeline Express” roller coaster resulted in the serious injury of a 12-year-old and led to its closure. Originally a water park in the Grand Prairie Entertainment district known as “White Water” in 1982, the site was purchased and closed by Wet ‘n Wild in 1985, Boardwalk Fun Park was redeveloped in 19 by new owners.
Boardwalk Fun Park in Grand Prairie – 1982 – 1992 The Galveston & Texas History Center noted that the bathhouse, however, was demolished a few years before the Beach Amusement Park in 1941. Not only was it promoted as sturdier than previous wooden bathhouses in the area that were destroyed in hurricanes, by virtue of being constructed of concrete and steel, but it offered a heated indoor pool, restaurant, roof garden, and ice skating rink. The Crystal Palace Bathhouse, in the same block, added to the area’s notoriety while being advertised as, “The South’s Greatest, Grandest Amusement Resort” overlooking Galveston’s Boulevard in local newspapers at the time of its 1916 opening. Further, San Marcos was recognized by the Texas Legislature in 2021 in a Senate resolution as the “Mermaid Capital of Texas.” In its wake, the closure of the park led in part to the founding of the Mermaid Society of Texas in 2016, which reports note hosts an annual promenade for the area’s river in celebration of Aquarena’s mermaid performers. The Aquarena Springs amusement park closed in the 1990s after the land was acquired by Texas State University – San Marcos, and its dismantling was considered officially complete with the end of the Submarine Theater and Sky Spiral in 2012, as noted in Texas Highways. According to historians, the park’s arcade also featured a Tic-tac-toe game in which human customers could “compete” against chickens.
The park featured attractions such as the Alpine Swiss Sky Ride, “Ralph, the Famous Swimming Pig,” and “mermaid” performers visible from the submarine theater.
Where is the coldest city in Texas? Aquarena Springs in San Marcos – 1951 – 1996Īccording to the Texas State Historical Association, Aquarena Springs was born out of a hotel property that was initially developed in the late 1920s, with the amusement park being added to the property in 1951 after the construction of a submarine theater and a large spillway at one end of the property’s lake.
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