Fontaine Ferry Park

[mikegriffin]

Found a site that seems somehow related to 79Waky and 1080Wklo.

www.fontaineferrypark.com/

An interesting item on their front page:

06/06/06: Today marks a sad day in Fontaine Ferry Park history. Four days ago I learned that the ferris wheel from Fontaine Ferry had been up and running at Bell's Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma since around 1976. Today, tornados ripped though Tulsa and destroyed the ferris wheel. As one local news station reported, the ferris wheel was "crumpled".

I have added a link with the only photos I have. This year would have been its 80th birthday. I'd like to give special thanks to Kyle in Tulsa for all of the information and photos. I should have known something bad would happen on 06/06/06.

[bruiser]

WAKY and WKLO used to have dances at Gypsy Village.

[mikegriffin]

It's amazing it turns out at one time a guy named Fontaine had a Ferry landing at the site of Fontaine Ferry Park...and at the turn of the century, when it started happening, a ferry was a common way to get there.

All these years with everyone calling it Fountain Ferry park, I never thought about the name, that it had any meaning. I knew the name was spelled 'Fontaine' but I would never have dreamed that someone might say it that way. I never gave a second thought what the Ferry part might be. Walt Disney had Tinker Bell, probably somewhere I thought it was magic like Tinker Bell.

It's like growing up around here and discovering when I entered radio that George Washington's name was really to be spoken the way it is written and not Worshington. That you wash your hands rather than worsh them. Does anyone git whot I'm-a-sayin'? This was traumatic.

Now, I'm 54 and Fontaine Ferry Park never had anything to do with any Fountain or any magical fairy. My world has changed today and I've got to try to adjust.

[Travis]

54? You're 54? The 20 year old kid with the long curly hair that I used to hangout with in the WAKY control room back in '72 is 54?

My world has changed tonight and now I've got to try to adjust.

(see photo with Donny Osmond reference on WAKY Photos - Page 5 as of this writing)

[kevin502]

All I remember is Ghost Town on the River.

[ron]

I was at Fountain Ferry the last night it was open. I had gone to Gypsy Village to see Tom Dooley and the Lovelights play.

Of course a honest to god riot took place and that of course was the end of Fountain Ferry and of course a part of Louisville history.

I remember that swimming pool that had the wood slat bottom pool.

Anyway, sad to see it go,

[jslone]

Need to know if im right or not. Didn't Fountaine Ferry open up as River Glen Park in the mid 70's I remember me & my friend going there in 1975 & i thought that was the name of it.

[bruiser]

There were some name changes. Ghost Town On The River was one, River Glen Park may have been another.

[axtel]

Jul 18, 2006 13:26:23 GMT -5 kevin502 said:

All I remember is Ghost Town on the River.

First trip there was with my parents in 1955. My grandparents went there on a date in 1919. Then it was destroyed several years after it was opened to everyone.

Hope Louisville doesn't need to change its name to Ghost Town On The River in the future.

[axtel]

Aug 13, 2006 21:49:14 GMT -5 bruiser said:

There were some name changes. Ghost Town On The River was one, River Glen Park may have been another.

It was Fontaine Ferry Park until it was rampaged and burned. Then it was repaired and reopened as GTOTR. But everyone I knew was afraid to go back down there. No one wanted their car damaged or worse.

The City did a good job cleaning out the site and landscaping it. Later on developers put in some beautiful homes. Our Louisville Riverwalk hike and bike trail actually goes right under where the screams from the old Comet coaster can still be heard.