the progress of commerce part 2

If seeing abandoned/dead malls isn't creepy enough for you, check out the abandoned amusement park in Japan. That one will throw you for a loop or two.

The USA also has abandoned parks too. Check these out:

Mountain Park, Holyoke Massachusetts - has both before (open) and after (closed) photos.

Chippewa Lake Park, Medina County Ohio - Some very creepy broken down roller coaster shots here.

There's more at Defunct Amusement Parks. Very nice collection there.

Unlike malls which can be torn down and replaced, many amusements parks cannot. Granted, there are exceptions to the rule (like Riverside turning into Six Flags New England), but more often than not a shut down park will stay there and rot for many years. The clean-up is just too costly to do anything with it, and the location of most of them isn't good for anything but an amusement park.

What's interesting to me is how people can let something like that just sit there. I'm sure there are collectors who would love to bring a big U-Haul truck and move the stuff that could be moved (like carousel horses). Ah well.. one of life's mysteries, I suppose.