Dreamland Amusement Park, Decatur, Illinois. (1905-1912)

Dreamland Amusement Park was established in 1905 by the Decatur Amusement Company with Fred Given appointed as manager. $40,000 was raised by a group of citizens. Ten acres were bought from E. S. Baker which were located on the Streetcar and Interurban lines, adjacent to Decatur, a city of 30,000.

The park included an artificial lake and a pumping station, a roller rink, a roller coaster, vaudeville theater, dance hall, merry-go-round, boating, a bathhouse and refreshment stand. For seven years the park was open, it never made a profit.

Dreamland Amusement Park was auctioned off on Tuesday, February 20, 1912, at the courthouse in Decatur, Illinois, and all items, which included an Edison picture machine, an organ, roller skates, lawn swings, park benches, chairs, and pool tables, sold in an auction. The city bought the property in 1919 for $15,000 ($221,000 today) and added it to Fairview Park.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Ebenezer Floppen Slopper's Wonderful Water Slides, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. (1980-1987)

Ebenezer Floppen Slopper's Wonderful Water Slides (aka Doc Rivers Raging Rapids Water Park) is an abandoned waterpark located on a large hill on Roosevelt Road and Route 83 in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. 

It first opened on July 5, 1980, with two 800 foot concrete water slides and gradually added 5 additional slides and a wading pool. The water park became a major summer attraction for residents of surrounding towns and communities as people lined up for rides down the large winding slides.

When the two main slides first began operation, people slid down in groups of up to eight people at a time on rubber mats. The 5 other slides added to the park included 2 flat racer slides in which people slid down headfirst on folded rubber mats, 2 semi-enclosed tube body slides, and a smaller inner tube slide which emptied into a nearby wading pool. The slides were also unique in that they were lined with a blue rubber foam material which would prevent injuries from contacts with the slide walls. Due to the design of the 2 main large concrete slides, especially with the V-shaped configuration of their sidewalls, people could also slide quite high up the walls of the slides, especially when hitting a turn at high speeds.

Around 1987, the large concrete slides were resurfaced with flat bottoms with humps and bumps in which people went down solo, on inner tubes, getting bumped up and down and sideways as they went down the renovated slides and the park was renamed "Doc River's Roaring Rapids Water Park."

The park subsequently closed for good at the end of the 1989 season for unknown reasons.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Dellwood (Amusement) Park, Joliet, Illinois. (1905-ca.1938)

Dellwood Park was built by the Chicago & Joliet Electric Railway Company to help promote ridership on the line. Costing nearly $300,000 to build, Dellwood Park officially opened on July 4, 1905, and quickly became one of the most outstanding and beautiful park sites in the state. 

Dellwood Park Attractions Map.
CLICK TO EXPAND MAP.

For over 30 years, this park, located in Lockport, was one of the region's finest amusement, recreational and picnic areas. Thousands of people came to the park annually by rail from Chicago and other surrounding communities.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.