 Hello and welcome to Ride History with Amusement Insiders season 2. I'm your host Jasmine and over the next few weeks I want to take you on a journey through the history of roller coasters in the United States. This week for episode one, let's take it all the way back and start at the very beginning. You see roller coasters in America didn't actually start out as full-blown roller coasters. In the early 1800s people were just discovering their hunger for thrills But no theme park or amusement rides as we know them today existed at that time So what did people do? Well, they created thrills by converting coal hauling railroads into paying passenger rides I mean given the popularity of mine style coasters through history Even to today is it any surprise that the idea of the roller coaster started with actual mine cart rides? One of the earliest examples of the mine turned attraction was at the March Chunk and Summit Railroad a coal mining train in Pennsylvania that started carrying paying passengers as a thrill ride in 1827 The March Chunk switchback railway as it became known used a powered double incline and Gravity to overcome two summits along a nine-mile ridge creating the quote-unquote Sawtooth profile that roller coasters are still widely known for to this day today We would call these sawtooth elements airtime hills and many early roller coasters were inspired by and designed after this groundbreaking element perhaps the first true roller coaster that was inspired by the March Chunk switchback railway was so influenced by the Mine ride that it not only adopted its main features But also its name you might have heard of it before the switchback railway at Coney Island which opened in 1884 and Sat on the spot where the Coney Island cyclone is today But as you could probably tell given the location of the former ride the Coney Island switchback railway no longer stands and In this particular series. I want to focus on historic rides that are still standing So let's move forward a little bit through history to a time when the design of the roller coaster first began to evolve The year was 1902 The location Lakemont Park, Altoona, Pennsylvania Leap the Dips was actually built to replace a ride called Gravity Railroad which stood in its place and burned down the year before Headed by one of the state's first large-scale amusement ride builders E. Joy Morris of Philadelphia Leap the Dips was built as part of a major expansion of Lakemont Park in which three new rides were constructed and Was considered the latest in roller coaster technology at the time Standing 41 feet tall and stretching 1,170 feet of wooden track Leap the Dips opened with seven cars that each had four seats and no safety restraints The train cars traveled at a top speed of 10 miles per hour through an interlocking figure eight track that featured a series of nine foot Dips which inspired the ride's name Leap the Dips The ride's maximum vertical angle was 25 degrees and the ride time worked out to a short foot sweet 60 seconds By far one of the most interesting features of this coaster is its track and wheel design Leap the Dips is what's known as a side friction roller coaster And is the last remaining side friction roller coaster in North America What makes this different from other roller coasters built today is the number of wheels The side friction trains have only two sets of wheels on the cars One set on top of the track to support the weight of the car and passengers and another set on the side Which guide the car by rolling against a sidetrack these cars do not have under wheels securing them to the tracks Hence the name side friction these side friction coaster designs were much more prevalent during the early days of ride design When Leap the Dips was built the four thrills escalated to the point of requiring additional wheels for safety While these engineering advances have opened the door to a vast variety of new roller coaster designs It means that the old-fashioned side friction design of Leap the Dips is now a part of history And the only remaining piece of that history still in existence in North America now Especially when we compare this coaster to modern designs It might seem like it's lacking in speed height airtime and thrills However, it's hard to compete with charm and Leap the Dips is a charming ride full of history With the unique claim of being the oldest roller coaster still standing in the world and the only side friction coaster in North America With that said the history of this ride hasn't been without its ups and downs over the years And the fact that this ride is still standing today is a major feat Lakemont Park not only had to struggle to survive a total of 10 seasons of drastically low attendance during the Great Depression of 1929 to 1939 but the park also had to survive multiple natural disasters including a flood on st. Patrick's Day in 1936 and an ice storm in 1950 creating widespread damage to the park and its rides However, Leap the Dips has been pretty lucky through the years and through these crises The coaster received minimal damage and was able to continue operation through the 1950s 60s 70s and into the 80s It was in 1982 when Richard Flint of the Smithsonian Institution first toured the park and raved about his experience Expressing that the park could be eligible for a national historic site designation because of the preservation of its pre-World War one atmosphere He celebrated the entirety of Lakemont Park for its quote rare rustic and nostalgic quality and quote And he referred to the Leap the Dips coaster as a quote marvelous survivor Unfortunately, not everyone wanted to keep it that way in 1985 a few years after the Smithsonian tour But before the park had a chance to achieve a historic designation a local company called Boyer Brothers Candy Company Purchased the park and aimed to model it after Hershey Park You see though Lakemont Park was being recognized for its historic value and charm The park was not profiting and likely to face closure in the near future if it wasn't purchased So the Boyer Brothers Candy Company completed the takeover and turned the park into Boyertown This change didn't sit well with park visitors However, and the rebranding ended up being even less successful than the original park prior to the sale Prices had been increased Unnecessary changes had been made and it was no longer the Lakemont Park that people loved so much to make matters worse The Boyer Brothers didn't see the value in the historic Leap the Dips coaster Viewing it instead as an expensive source of ongoing maintenance needs Leap the Dips was built over a natural spring and over the years the wooden supports had rotted The Boyer Brothers were not prepared to pay up for the ride's necessary restoration So they decommissioned the coaster that same year Luckily for this historic coaster the Boyer Brothers did not get the chance to tear the ride down Since their Boyertown version of the park was so unsuccessful that in 1988 just three years later Ralph Albarano purchased the park back from the Boyer Brothers with the promise to quote Retraditionalize the old Lakemont Park and though Albarano mostly made good on this promise to bring the park back to its former glory The budget ran short of recommissioning the Leap the Dips coaster at that time The ride remained standing but not operating until it was finally awarded a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 this long-deserved title gave new hope to the future of Leap the Dips and by 1994 a Leap the Dips preservation society was formed to help raise the roughly one million dollars in funds needed to bring the coaster back to life On top of this the Lakemont Park Historical Society opened a museum to honor the park's past Bringing even more attention to the need to restore this historic roller coaster The American coaster enthusiast stepped in around the same time working to designate the ride as a national historic landmark an effort which was won in 1996 and helped to raise the awareness and funding needed to refurbish the ride and get it back to its operating status Ace later went on to give the ride their own designation of Ace roller coaster landmark in 2002 After over 10 years of fighting for the future of the Leap the Dips coaster its restoration began on May 16th 1998 P. Joseph Lehman incorporated consulting engineers were selected to conduct the restoration which had to be completed with Extreme caution and attention to detail in order to meet the standards of a national historic landmark This is a very rare designation to achieve and comes with many requirements around the preservation of the character of the historic landmark Any new lumber for the ride had to be purchased a year before the restoration began to ensure it was acclimated to the environment a Steam box was built next to the ride to shape the wood using the same method used during the ride's original construction in 1901 and a specialized restoration carpenter was brought in to work on the restoration in The end the team managed to save about 70% of the original lumber and the restoration was successfully completed in time for a memorial day reopening in 1999 Since it's reopening in 1999 Leap the Dips has steadily remained in operation until the 2018 season just passed Over the past year Lakemont Park has been undergoing a new round of renovations While this new revitalization is focused on making the park less of an amusement park and more of a family park Coaster enthusiasts and history buffs can rest assured that the Leap the Dips roller coaster is being kept in all of its glory And will reopen again with the revitalized park in the 2019 season This ride has amused and charmed visitors and coaster enthusiasts for over a century And it's an amazing feat of luck Perseverance and passion that it still stands for riders to enjoy to this day So with all of that said I'd love to hear from you the audience Were you already aware of Pennsylvania's rich history in the early days of roller coaster development in the US? Do you have any stories or facts of your own to share about this historic coaster? And do you plan to ride it once it reopens to get the world's oldest roller coaster credit? Let us know in the comments. I Hope you enjoyed this first part of our ride through American roller coaster history Make sure to join us again next Sunday as we explore the next chapter of the evolution of the roller coaster in the USA When you are the 12th oldest continually operating amusement park in the world Your past is measured in volumes and not merely on the basis of isolated events Lake Montez Booth forward by looking backward But refusing to stare Sure It still remains home to the Leap the Dips the world's oldest standing wooden roller coaster While efforts continue to refurbish the 95-year-old structure the skyliner is a suitable alternative