Defunct Amusement Parks: Freedomland USA

Pop culture history in the United States is full of things that came and went.  Amusements parks come and go, but some stick around for a long time like Disneyland in California.  Still others are forgotten, because their time only lasted a few years.  Such is the case of Freedomland USA in the Bronx, New York which lasted from 1960 to 1964.

I never heard of Freedomland until two months ago.  When I asked my mother about it, she had nothing about good things to say about that place.  However, her memories of it were a bit different than how the place was actually set-up.  See, she grew up in the Bronx and used to go to that amusement park, but she said the park was broken down into different parts of the world.  The reality is, it was broken into sections showcasing different parts of the United States at different points in history.  

When I asked my coworkers, who went there when they were kids, they said there was nothing great about the place.  Of course I went straight to YouTube to see if there were videos of this place and thankfully, there are a lot of videos!  From what I see, I think I would have loved this amusement park.

Here's an article I wrote for The Retroist which goes into more detail about the history of Freedomland USA.  Did you go to an amusement park when you were younger, but it no longer exists?  Let me know.