Sunday, September 22, 2013

From The Vault: Action Park 1996 Brochure and Map



Who remembers the wild and crazy Action Park?  It was located in Vernon Township, New Jersey, and operated until 1996 (the year of this brochure) before being closed and eventually sold.  I came across this brochure in the files and thought it would be a nice fit for From The Vault.
 

During its heyday Action Park featured separate attractions on the grounds, including a water park, go-karts, and an alpine slide.  All of the attractions were known for having a flair of danger associated with them, whether that was totally real or imagined I'm not sure.  The park was certainly known for pushing the boundaries with its attractions, however.  You can get your fill of reading about the park's famous looping water slide (a real loop) and raging water channels on its Wikipedia page. (the page is extremely biased however, almost sounding like it was written by a lawyer.)
  

Now in 1996 the park had spent some time cleaning up its image, at least somewhat.  It was associated with the Great Gorge Resort, which features tons of activities like sports and pools and golf and more - the entire complex was pushed as an overnight retreat.  That's why the page above focuses on the resort aspect exclusively.


But during this era of Action Park the water park and other activities were the big draw.  The water park had some traditional slides, but also many unique channels and rivers flowing down the side of the mountain.  There was also a large wave pool and more active attractions like mini-cliff jumping and rope swings.  This video from YouTube shows off the park in 1991, including the rafts on some of the more adventurous rides.


The dry section of the property had lots of different rides, including a Space Shot that only stayed at the park for a short time.  It was new in 1996, and was probably moved to another park a long time ago. There were also go-karts, speed boats, bumper boats, a tank ride, bungee jumping and more.


The park also included this map of the property, though pretty significantly not to scale.  You can still get a nice idea of what the park offered, and where it was located.  Only a handful of items shown here are still in operation today.

Action Park was sold and then the water park was reopened as Mountain Creek.  Later down the line it changed hands again, but has stayed open.  You can browse their webpage here.


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