Gondola Wheel

Wow, I can almost hear people and wheels grinding.....this is amazing Motts.

Mmm, the sound of people grinding. :p
Haha, sorry, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.
Anyways... I love the lighting in this picture. Especially on the ceiling of the Gondola ride thingy. Beautiful.

LOL @ Kassie!

PMSL@Kassie, exactly how I interpreted Jude's post as well!

Loading station for the "Sky Liner" ride. The original seats are still located in the park, but I can't tell you where.

...and believe it or not the people grinding comment is not far off the mark. This ride had, to my knowledge, the bloodiest death in the parks history. Each morning ride maintenance went down checked out all the rides. The skyliner's far end is not in view from the control deck shown in the picture. To avoid accidents ride maint mechanics would pull the fuses out from the control at the control deck so that the ride could not be turned on while they checked the equally large wheel at the other end. One morning a ride operator was sent down to start the ride. He threw the power switch and nothing happened (fuses pulled). Most ride operators did not know a whole lot about their ride beyond operation. This was an exception. The operator knew the ride, opened the control panel, inserted the fuses (thought he was saving the maint crew an additional job), and started the ride. It was said that there was a scream you could hear throughout the park (223 acres). The ride mechanic was working on the wheel on the other end and was caught in the spokes and cut in half...

From that point forward the ride mechanics not only pulled the fuses - they took the fuses with them to the other wheel.

Yumm... People burgers! Can I get mine with cheese and no mustard?

The original seats, if they are still in the park are most likely stored in the tunnel. A narrow passageway that had train tracks inside it where the train and its cars were stored in the winters.

Gondola? WTH is a gondola? Last time I looked this ride was called The Sky Linner. I loved looking around the park from this ride. Yeah, it was the most boring ride in the park. But I never heard of the story about the maintenace guy been cut in half at the far end. Now I understand why I used to feel so erie around that turnaround.

You are right doc, this was the sky liner and the story that John Black is talking about happened at an amusment park in Pennsylvania NOT Rhode Island. The only time people got hurt on this ride is when they went to jump for the car and they would fall off the side. I saw it happen once and a man broke his leg. The medical people were trying to help him and he kept screaming "DONT TAKE MY PANTS OFF THERE ARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN AROUND!"

To this day I can still smell the oil from these wheels because they were going so quickly that it would burn the oil up.

I respectfully disagree. While I cannot say whether or not a similar incident occurred in PA I do stand by my previously posted story.

If that were the case they would have done something to this ride....like dismantle it??? The state would have stepped in and done something about that. In the Pennsylvania incident, the ride was dismantled and sold for scrap. If this happened at Rocky Point, why was it up and running till the park closed???

In all my years of living in Rhode Island while Rocky Point was open (lived there for 27 years) I NEVER heard of a story like that. I heard of the people getting flung off the Yo Yo and the person almost taking a header off the corkscrew, but that was about it

In my obsessive exstensive research for the Rocky Point comic book I'm working on-I searched the Providence Library's newspaper records. I do a recall a story about a worker being killed, and if I remember correctly, it was the skyliner. I believe it was in the late fifties-to mid sixties...

John Black deserves the Rocky Point knowledge gold medal-Although that Bill guy knows his stuff too.

By the way-John-what do you think will happen to some of these spare rides supposedly hidden at the park?

I remember the story of the kid standing up on the drop of the Flume and falling out...and i always heard rumors of someone falling out of the corkscrew...were there any other accidents at the park?

did someone burn it down are people still alive where are the people today

No, everyone is dead. No people are left alive anywhere. I hope that answers your questions. Please write in if you have any others. However, since everyone is dead there may not be anyone here to respond. We hope this does not cause you any major inconvenience.

Lynne is in rare form today!!!! :-)

I like it ;-)

There is no federal agency regulating amusement parks. Nor is there any federal rule that if someone gets significantly hurt or even killed on a ride the ride must be dismantled. Some states do have inspectors but what one state chooses to do has nothing to do with what another may choose. As a result most regulation comes by way of the insurance companies. They may simply refuse to insure a particular ride after a certain point. The law of a particular state may require insurance. Even if a particular state's insurance rules do not mandate insurance coverage (I suspect every state requires it now) an amusement park owner would be insane to operate a park without it.

All amusement parks have deaths. This includes super-parks like Disneyland/Disneyworld. Anytime you have humans using heavy-duty machinery you have the opportunity for people to get hurt. Be it a car, train, backhoe, plane, trash-compactor or amusement park ride. When parks are open long enough things do happen. RP was open over 145 years and had more than one incident.

Some amusement parks do have policies regarding the liquidation of rides in the event of a major accident. This does not mean disassembling or destroying the ride. It usually means reselling the ride to another park. Six Flags Chicago for instance has a policy that if a ride has significant bad publicity they get rid of the ride. Six Flags freefall which was built for them (at the time there were only 10 in the world) had an accident where a car fell back down the lift and people got hurt. The freefall was then sold to Rocky Point and is now in Ohio.

Someone did attempt to surf down the big hill on the log flume ride. They made it to the bottom of the hill and, when the log hit the slow down brake, got flung over the front of the log and run over. Logs were 600lbs empty. He did survive due to the heroic work of a crew chief of the ride who stormed through the trough and pulled him to safety before the 2nd log came along. The newspapers got the story wrong though. So...JMayoh if you read that particular story in your research I assure you there was no 'lifeguard' who swam through the trough and saved the guy. That part was totally fabricated by the newspaper. You may be interested to know that the crew chief in question was also one of the artists who re-drew the monsters on the House of Horrors ride several years later. His name was Robert Cubellis.

They also had an embarrassing incident where they posed a lot of people on the log flume deck for a photo-op and the deck collapsed.

Part 2: In other words: Yes, an employee did die as I described on the Skyliner...and yes the ride continued to operate, although I believe it was closed the rest of that season.

I doubt that there are any rides hidden on the property. There may be ride parts such as the Skyliner cars that are possibly located in the tunnel. There is also a small possibility that some damaged Cyclone cars that were stored in the bottom of the Shore Dinner hall are still there. It was pretty well documented where most of rides went subsequent to the auction.

I was able to contact Mr. Picotte regarding the House of Horrors-Halloweenland. He told me that he was one of the organizers of the event, and that no one purchased the house of horrors....
if this is the case, where did all the stuff inside go? John, perhaps you could shed some light on this

Ummm....I was there the day of the auction. I was not however standing right there when the House of Horrors was up. Later on, the same day, someone I used to know that was also quite knowledgeable regarding the park said to me that the House of Horrors had been sold. We were both laughing because we knew that it could not be moved.

I have no specific knowledge of what happened to the props inside. I can only speculate. Here are some possibilities:

1. Stolen - there have been many souvenir hunters in the interval subsequent to the parks closing.

2. The new owner took what he could and left the rest. Although the cars are probably the most interesting they were also heavy and attached to the track. There was a special 'trick' to removing them. Without someone to tell them they may not have realized that a certain three foot section of the track was designed to be popped out so that the cars could be worked upon on their underside and/or removed. The cars were also easily damaged by inexperienced operators who might for various reasons try to roll the cars backwards along the track. A big no-no due to the mechanical finger on the underside of the car that acted as the electrical contact point for deliivering electricty to the car and caused the wheels to move. There was at least one car in the gallery here, The Reptile, that was removed from the track. Based on where it was located I suspect that whoever removed it forced it off the track at the bottom of the conveyor belt.

3. Remember Janello? Perhaps he or his family came back and took what they created.

4. I have suspected, but do not know, that the gravestones may have been removed by park employees in the final days. The gravestones had the names of various year round park employees and they may have been intrigued to take the gravestoness that possessed their names.

Motts you had photos of two cars in the gallery - were there more than two cars remaining?

Minor correction: Motts has pictures of three cars - still there were originally more than this.

Auction catalog lists the house having 8 cars all together.
Documented on various other sites-
1.reptile
2.dracula
3.frankenstein
4. planet of the apes?
5. creature from the black lagoon
6. the mummy? Guessing from image on back
the last two are MIA...
7.the wolfman
8.???

Other Abandoned Rocky Point sites for your reference
www.insanebunkers.com

www.themeparkpage.com/content/rockypoint/today.htm

(Motts-your shots are still the best)

Also John-Did you know that someone is selling video footage of the park 2005 on Ebay?

No idea about the video. I'll look it up when I get the chance.

that story about the guy being cut inhalf is weird cause we were going to sneak in one night and we were all sitting on the top of the sky linerright under the back weel, ya i heard a story that there was a hellevator type ride in the park and it went up and a girls hair got caught on the top and it droped and tore here hair out practicly skalping here and thats why they closed cause she sued and they went bankrupt i dont beleive it but its just something i heard and i was wondering if anyone else had

Wow, that's a really long sentence. My brain ran out of breath reading it. Also that girl that was scalped by an amusement ride at Bonkers 19 indoor amusement park at the Harborlight Mall in Weymouth, Massachusetts. It was also a Mini-Himalaya that caused the injury and not a falling elevator styled ride.

this pic just made me wanna cry :'(

Sorry I have to say something!! Lynne comment 0n 5/5/06 I can't stop laughing!!! Good Comment!!

In response to some of the above comments, there is a website that's all about carnival ride accidents and the details around them: www.rideaccidents.com.

To put in my two cents worth about the skyliner tragedy - I recall my grandfather telling that story when I was a kid in the late 60's/early 70's.

Hello everyone!
My son (same name) googled our name and this talk session came up! Yes, I did jump in and save that intoxicated fellow on th flume ride. And yes, a maintenance worker was chopped to pieces on the skyliner! I am currently a math teacher in Mansfield, MO.
My how times have changed. I am very impressed with John Black's knowledge of Rocky Point and Rhode Island. I lived there for 24 years. Please respond back! Thanks!

Hi Robert! You should join the Forum. Seems like you would have a lot to contribute!

Hello Robert!
I believe John Black said you painted some of the cars in the house of horrors? Could you share any info with us?

Hi Robert Cubellis.

(amused smile); Care to quiz me on the park? See how far my knowledge really goes???

Thanks for the compliment.

I look at these pictures and want to cry. Rocky Point was such a part of me. But all good things come to an end. Politics and corruption were definitely part of the parks demise. I did eventually become part of upper management and saw the nasty underbelly of business. After all, it was run by Italians (Myself being one!) One bright and shining moment, though, is that I met a girl there. I was a ride operator on the Apollo in 1984 and she kept coming on my ride. Turns out we've been married for 19 years now and have 3 children. I am amazed that all of you are so fascinated with its history. I thought the park was long forgotten but thanks to you, it lives on. You guys are great! O.K. enough sappy crap! John, I've got a trivia question for you.... Which two rides at Rocky Point played music as patrons spun around? Good Luck! Talk to you all soon!!!!

Right back at you...there were actually three rides that did that - Musik Express, Apollo 11 and the Carousel. The first two played contemporary music and the last more traditional calliope music. I dont recall if the little carousel in Kiddieland played music or not.

You've got to make the questions harder than that!

O.K. John....Answer this one....who was the general manager of Rocky Point in the early eighties?

...and the answer is...CF was general mgr in the early 80s.

Here's two for you. The t-shirt gift shop was owned separately from the park. Who owned it?

In the early years of the park all the rides were owned by individuals and they leased the space for the ride.. Eventually, the park owners bought up all the rides. What was the last ride to be privately owned within the park?

The T-Shirt shop was orinally a Bingo hut called Fascination, was it not?

I was wondering if there are any latest pictures of the park (2004-2006) and if anyone knows if theres any chance of being able to see the park before they build the new houses. Thanks in advance. :)

Hi Everyone. I am working on a documentary about Rocky Point and we are looking for people who worked at the park to talk to and/or interview. If there is any way that either Robert Cubellis or John Black or anyone else with "inside scoop" could contact us we would really appreciate it. We have a website setup at www.rockypointmovie.com and you can contact us at: admin@rockypointmovie.com . We are also looking for video footage/home movies/photos of the park when it was still in operation. I will be checking back to this forum from time to time as well. Any help is VERY MUCH appreciated.

Thanks!
Liam Gray

Cf = Conrad Ferla, now deceased. The 2nd circular ride was the Musik Express!
I remember it well!

My cuz told me about your site. Your pics are amazing. this must of been awesome, going to this park

John Black, i didnt have enough time to read all ur comments but how do u know so much about this park???

Mmmmm! Chowder and clam cakes!
I miss Rocky Point so much!!!!!!!!

as a teenager i would go on this ride to smoke

The games were owned by MRB Enterprises

I am really impressed with everyone's knowledge about the park. I worked for the Games department when I was 14 and when I turned 18 I got a job working the rides. I worked my way to crew chief of the Free Fall, Cyclone, and Corkscrew. I then became a break person. I stopped working there when I got a job on a small ship cruise line. The Free Fall did in fact get sold to a Ohio park for $500,000 and then was sold as spare parts for $250,000 to another park, but I don't know where.

I worked at Rocky Point for 4 yrs. I was the first female ride supervisor in the parks history. Frank, do you remember me? I'm in FL now, but really miss RP, it was the best job I've ever had!!

Yes, as a matter of fact ;I think I remember you. Do you remember me? It was a shame what the city of Warwick did to Rocky Point.. The State of Rhode Island and the Historical Society could have stepped in and helped the park get back on their feet, but it all came down to money and we all suffered because of it.

Frank, I worked for MRB from 82 - 84. My dad ran security for the park ( LT. Jim Godbout from Warwick PD). I notice nobody ever mentions David Casciolli (sp?). I have been living in South Carolina since leaving the Marines in 88'. It is sad to see what happened to this wonderful place.

I think a guy named Don Cloutier ran the MRB Enterprises at Rocky Point and he had a son named Eric who worked there too. In 1984 I was 14 so we probably worked together.

These things -always- scare me.

I remember it so well, Many fond memories with my family, friends and neighbors. Is it still operational?

As a student I operated this ride! Jesus! It was such a long time ago! In 1990. Now I understand the park was closed 6 yrs later. I am so sorry about it. As Hungarian, from behind the iron curtain this job was and has been one of my "life memories" - and it now vanishes into ...eternity... Peter (szabopeter67@t-online.hu)

I was on the Flume deck when the rail broke due to overcrowding. I had been on a walk-a-thon that day that concluded at the park. It was a hot day and the place was absolutely packed, The rail ran along the perimeter of the deck, and the deck was overloaded with people leaning against the rail. People fell below onto the concrete canal abuttment. I was almost trampled to death when people tried exiting down the stairs. I was off my feet , being moved by the crowd. If not for the chain link fence i grabbed hold of, who knows.... they repositioned the rail later to split the deck and keep folks in single file.

Its not a gondola it was called the sky line

rocky point has a walking path now ..the park is mostly dismantled and fences off....the dinning hall is still up and the poles to the skyline and there is a larger building you see further down the path ..im curios as to what that is...at the vrery end of the path there are old beach houses..i like to call it shack town..does anyone know why the houses are fenced in with the park? the park closed a year b4 i was born but im so intrgued by it becasue family members have so many memories from there..