Freedomland, U.S.A.

Here are three more scans of vintage slides featuring Freedomland U.S.A., located (for four short years) in the Bronx (New York, of course). I am endlessly fascinated by this park, conceived by C.V. Wood - a valuable aid to Walt Disney in the early planning of Disneyland, though they had a major falling out. You can read about it in Todd James Pierce's "Three Years in Wonderland"!

This first photo shows the next exterior to the "Civil War", "...a horse-drawn wagon adventure ride through recreations of American Civil War battle ground, camps, derailed trains and burning houses, which ends in the middle of a mock battle". As historians know, the Civil War was perhaps the most fun war ever.

There is something very evocative about these faux ruins, as if they were all that was left of a building after General Sherman's "scorched earth" march to the sea.

Freedomland had its own Santa Fe-sponsored railroad (with two locomotives), and it looks like it was a beauty. This particular locomotive appears to be the "Ernest S. Marsh" - yes, the same name as Disneyland's #4 engine (which debuted in 1959, while Freedomland didn't open until 1960). Notice the couple consulting the handy park map - as you can see, the park was in the shape of a prehistoric chicken.

I don't mean to be unkind, but come on - that HAS to be a man in that dress and golden pigtails, right? He's looking extra glum because this is "Bring Your Son To Work" day, and in about 20 minutes, 10 year-old Mikey will find out what his dad does for a living. Hey, it's honest work! For the last year the old man has been telling his kid that he "works with cattle".

Elsie the Cow was a featured (and popular!) resident of Freedomland (you could see her in her "boudoir"), but Elsie was a brown Jersey heifer. I can sense your disappointment.