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“You know you’re from New Jersey,” the chain email I receive roughly twice a year keeps telling me, “if you remember Action Park and were seriously injured there.” I assume every state has a similar list. Not being from those states, I can’t say for sure.
While I don’t count myself among the casualties, I was briefly knocked unconscious during a tumultuous tube ride down the Colorado River Rapids. That was in 1995, the second consecutive year we were ejected from the Park. I was merely guilty by association, wandering around in a daze, possibly concussed. On those same Rapids, a friend decided to tackle the Action Park employee monitoring the starting line, taking her down with him.
This seems crazy in retrospect, but Action Park was a lawless place. A place where people drowned in the wave pool on a regular basis. A place that tested a full-loop water slide with crash-test dummies (the dummies were decapitated). A place that bought the town of Vernon additional ambulances, to keep up with the volume of injuries.
How many people actually died at Action Park? Ask anyone born in Jersey between 1970 and 1984, and you’ll hear a ranging toll. Twenty. Thirty-six. North of 100. 8%. But the real answer is only six. Let’s review:
• In 1980, a 19-year-old park employee was killed on the alpine slide. His car jumped the track and his head struck a rock.
• In 1982, a 15-year-old boy drowned in the Wave Pool.
• A week later, a 27-year-old man from Long Island was electrocuted after falling out of his kayak on The Kayak Experience.
• In 1984, a man died of a heart attack supposedly caused by cold water in the pool beneath the Tarzan Swing (the drained Tarzan Swing pool is pictured above, courtesy of Abandoned But Not Forgotten.)
• Later that year, an 18-year-old from Brooklyn drowned in the Wave Pool.
• In 1987, another 18-year-old drowned in the Wave Pool.
Action Park shut its doors in 1996, and has since reopened as Mountain Creek Waterpark, with an increased emphasis on safety. So far, no deaths have been reported.
I realize this is a pretty narrow topic. But if anyone has any good Action Park stories, we’d love to hear them.
Comments (22)
Comment
Broke a rib on the inner tube water slide. Scraped much of the skin off of my left thigh on the Alpine Slide.
gosh i miss action park.
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 1-22-2007 at 1:26 pm
I lost a lot of skin on the Alpine Slide too.
I Went down the slide a total of 3 times in my life, and skinned myself twice.. Brutal… but that one time I made it…WOW
posted by Melanie T on 1-22-2007 at 1:51 pm
Wow, I am originally from New Jersey but I never heard of this place.
posted by Rhea on 1-22-2007 at 2:03 pm
I don’t blame that guy for dying of a heart attack due to the cold water at the Tarzan Swing… I remember it was utterly freezing. (It was in a grove of trees, so no sunlight ever reached the pool.)
You always saw people with horrible skin burns from the slide. Just recently, I went on one at Stowe, Vermont and found it to be painfully slow. Were the slides at Action Park slow too? I seem to remember zooming down the mountain on them.
posted by Erak on 1-22-2007 at 2:59 pm
My brother once sunk a bumper boat. He was over the weight limit, so he thought he was going to get into some serious trouble when they escorted him into their offices. It turned out they just wanted him to sign some documents so he couldn’t sue them.
posted by Erak on 1-22-2007 at 3:16 pm
I remember diving off the cliffs with my brother. As we were about to jump, he muttered something I couldn’t hear. So I jumped after him and ended up hitting the water - genitalia first - after the plunge. My brother’s words of wisdom: “Cross your legs or you’ll be in pain for weeks.” My nether-regions haven’t felt the same since.
posted by Adam on 1-22-2007 at 4:10 pm
Wow, the debut album by the band Shellac was entitled “at Action Park.” I thought it was a made up name but now I think it’s much cooler.
I’m 90 miles away from Disneyland. We had a fatal scalping a couple of years ago, and whiplash on the rollercoaster at California Adventure is fairly common.
posted by Jason on 1-22-2007 at 4:14 pm
i remember “skiing” there once winter, when they would call it “great gorge”. It was more like pushing yourself thru the mud to the next patch of slush so u could slide down again to some mud etc etc. It’s a strange type of skiing already, but when ur passing water rides along the way there’s not much else like it.
posted by knick on 1-23-2007 at 7:37 am
Weird New Jersey recently published a great article on Action Park. They are the definitive source on all New Jersey weirdness, great and small. And yes, they DO have a web site.
www.weirdnj.com
Enjoy!
posted by Rusty Stead on 1-23-2007 at 8:05 am
Yep, I thought I was doing something wrong every time I left a piece of myself on the Alpine Slide! That thing was brutal! It’s a wonder we don’t all have TB now.
posted by dina on 1-23-2007 at 8:53 am
A few years ago, a few friends and I jumped out of the 5(?) person tube of the “family tube ride” whatever it was called. A friend of mine’s suit got caught in one of the joints between tube sections and was ripped off. He ended up having to walk naked to get his towel (as none of us were willing to help… haha) The lifeguards were quick to tell us that wasnt the first time a “active swim suit removal” (their words) happened that month that week or even that day…
posted by Dan on 1-24-2007 at 5:40 pm
mountain creek is pretty sketchy too.
i know of people breaking their ankles when snowboarding or skiing in the winter and others getting neck injuries in the summer. they’ve complained and mountain creek’s basic response is,”oh well, sucks for you.”
it’s awesome.
posted by mikaila on 1-24-2007 at 11:04 pm
I started going to Action Park around 1981 at age 11 and it was was my favorite park on Earth. Maybe not always the “happiest place on Earth,” but definitely the World’s Largest Participation Park. As far as injuries…I always said that if you got injured, you know you had a good time. No offense to anyone who was or knows someone who was seriously or fatally injured. As a longtime motorcyclist and overall speed freak, I must say, alpine slides rule! If you took the intermediate slide at Action Park, you could catch air right around the big yellow slow down banner they had hanging from the trees. Wearing jeans and a jean jacket became a prerequisite for a fun fast ride on the slides. I forgot this rule in the early 90’s at Stowe and because I was wearing shorts, have the scars to remind me of my mistake. Oh yeah, and some people jokingly called it TRACTION Park, but never seriously, for fear of having the place shut down, which it eventually did. Don’t forget about Motor World….High Speed Go-Karts or Mini Lola cars anyone?
posted by Brian on 1-27-2007 at 11:11 pm
I grew up in NY, and as a kid I went to Action Park 3 or 4 times. It was by far the greatest place on earth. If you google Action Park there are a bunch of sites with pictures of the place, both new and old. I would love to go back to the east and see what the new park looks like.
posted by Greg on 2-1-2007 at 8:26 pm
Raised in Vernon from 1976-1990. As a right of passage I worked at Action Park and Vernon Valley Ski Resort in the winter while in High School. What memories that place gives. Most times it was like a M*A*S*H unit during the summer season. Nothing but weekend warrior tough guys from the city that thought they were impervious to injury. They were the first to go down. It was much fun and we all laughed.
posted by Action Jackson on 2-20-2007 at 12:54 pm
I didn’t weigh enough by a long shot as a skinny teenager to ride the tall water slide. In fact, I think I was just about the 100 lbs. required to ride the shorter one. I still hydroplaned and left with with a red, water-beaten back which throbbed in the July sun all day and beyond. I still rode the Tarzan swing like a champ, though.
posted by Big Blue on 6-26-2007 at 3:41 pm
Worked there in the summer of 84′ on the Super Go Karts as a ride attendant.
Witnessed many accidents from people not paying attention. Saw lots of blood and black eyes. Otherwise the ride was safe.
Was aware of the both deaths that year.
If I recall the place was owned and run by a N. Jersey family ( not going to mention the name)that didn’t care about public safety. Management was equally as bad. I remember many lawsuits filed. Working on the ski slopes during winter making snow was just as risky.
I am surprised the place was open until 1996. The state should have shut them down in the 80’s
posted by Scott on 11-2-2007 at 7:33 am
I went to Action Park with my ninth grade class in 95. Chipped my tooth upon impacting the water at the Tarzan Swing. Several of my friends wound up with cuts and bruises from other rides. Back then, we couldn’t believe how many minor (thank God) injuries so many of us sustained. Looking back now, its pretty evident. And looking at that above photo of the Tarzan Swing brings back memories.
posted by Liana on 11-30-2007 at 10:47 pm
My son years ago,he was about 7 then, went down the Action Slide in Cave City KY. It was horrible, according to a couple of witnesses at the top of the slide, a couple of teenage employees thought it would be fun to “knock someone off the slide”. Well they accomplished that, but not without harm. Most of the skin on his back was ripped off and the sled hit his head causing a concussion. To this day he still has memory problems as a result of the accident.
posted by Michelle on 12-3-2007 at 8:40 pm
“I assume every state has a similar list. Not being from those states, I can’t say for sure.”
here’s the upstate NY one -
YOU MIGHT BE FROM UPSTATE NEW YORK…
If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Upstate New York.
If you’re proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights a year because Saranac Lake is the coldest spot in the nation, and Syracuse gets more snow than any other major city in the US, you might live in Upstate, NY.
If your local Dairy Queen is closed from October through May, you might live in Upstate New York .
If you get 131 inches of snow in a week and you comment that ‘winter’s finally here’, you might live near Oswego in Update New York.
If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year, you might live, bundled up, in Upstate New York.
If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance, and they don’t work there, you might live in Upstate NY.
If your dad’s suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in Upstate New York.
If you have worn shorts and a parka on the same day, you might live in Upstate New York.
If you have had a lengthy phone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Upstate New York.
YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE UPSTATE NEW YORKER WHEN:
“Vacation” means going South past Syracuse for the weekend.
You can grab your windshield wiper wile driving and nock the ice off it.
You measure distance in hours.
You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.
You often switch from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day and back again.
You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend/wife knows how to use them.
You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.
You can identify a southern or eastern accent.
Down South to you means Corning.
Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new shed.
You go out for a fish fry every Friday.
Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.
You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
You find 10 degrees “a little chilly.” and 55 is shorts weather.
:)
posted by clotho on 12-19-2007 at 3:41 pm
I actually handled the claims for the insurance co. — it was amazing how many people were hurt — then they started selling these rides to other water parks ??????
it was a complete disaster–
posted by billy ryder on 3-3-2008 at 10:32 am
My family made it a summer event to go to Action Park from 1985-1988. It was the best park in the whole world for us. No wonder we’re still thrill seekers. We never got injured, of course, we knew how to swim and how to prevent from getting hurt recklessly. Our father (now 66) made us learn to swim in the Caribbean with the big waves and stuff; so we learned how to survive in Action Park. My mom has a photo of my sister on the tube ride taken by the park assistants once in 1988. We still sit and watch our kids at the pool remembering all those crazy day in Action Park!!
posted by Enid Moyeno on 5-14-2008 at 8:33 am