Electric (Amusement) Park Corners, Sycamore, Illinois. (1904-1931)

The area began as a settlement. Sycamore, Illinois, was incorporated as a village in 1858. Electric Park Corners  (aka Electric Park) was developed at 1325 South Old Route 23 (1325 South Dekalb Avenue, today) at South Peace Road. 

The name comes from the first electric amusement center that this area had. Henry Groves was the proprietor, and his son, George Groves, recalls some memories.

If you turn off the highway, the old settlement corner can still be seen. Take the first road to the right, Old Route 23, until it suddenly turns south. You've found the Electric Park Corner Settlement. 

The old electric trolley line, Electric Traction Company, connecting Sycamore and DeKalb encouraged the venture to stimulate business, even though the Park survived the trolley. At one time, the company advertised that you could leave DeKalb on the eight o'clock car in the evening and arrive at Electric Park to attend a vaudeville and motion picture show at the theatre at 8:15 PM and the total cost, including a reserved theater seat cost 25¢. The Park had a huge dance pavilion, a baseball diamond, a theater, and other attractions.

The ball diamond was said to be one of the best in the area. In the first decade of the century, even the Chicago White Sox came to play an exhibition game here. The famous Ed Walsh pitched. The baseball teams which used the diamond there had various names. The first was Grove's Colts. Another was called the Bug Six, named after a cereal factory that sponsored the team. 

Some residents may still remember one of the interesting advertisements painted on the east end of one of the barns at the Park. It was painted by a man name Cheetham. Two men were on the scene. One of the men said, "Have a cigar, my dear Alphonso." The other replied, "Certainly, if it's Bell of Sycamore." The latter referred to a cigar manufactured in Sycamore long ago.

Groves says he was around six or seven when the Park started. The American Legion used to sponsor huge picnics on Independence Day, attracting 10,000 to 15,000 people. Labor Day was another important weekend.

Organizations used to hold big parties and picnics at the Park. C.H. Palmer had his own orchestra (he also played the trumpet and violin), which provided music for dances at the pavilion at Electric Park Corner. Organizations like the "Odd Fellows" would hold picnics at Electric Park Corners as a fundraiser. 

Groves remembers one Labor Day in 1910 or 1912 when a man was killed when jumping from a balloon. His parachute failed to open. His falling body missed some stacks of oat bundles, which might have saved his life. That was the last of numerous balloon releases. Those were in the days before helium and hydrogen had been discovered. They used to get the balloons in the air with fire and gas. Groves said that a tunnel was dug from the balloon to a fire, on which gas was poured. The hot air and gas flowed through the tunnel and into the balloons as a hundred men held on to the ropes until the jumper was in his basket and ready to go. The balloons would soar as high as 1,000 feet before the jumpers parachuted.

The original dance pavilion, 100 by 300-foot, at the Park burned down in the 1920s. It was rebuilt with a cement floor and then rebuilt by a man named Murphy, but when the last one built finally burned down in the early 1930s, that was the end of the amusement center.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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.

Custer Bowery Amusement Park, Kankakee, Illinois. (1890s-1920s)

This was an amusement park, built by the Wabash Railroad to encourage weekend riders. It was located just east of the railroad and just west of the Kankakee River. Ten-car excursion trains bearing Chicago fun-seekers, mainly from German neighborhoods, would arrive early in the morning and return to Chicago very late in the evening.

There were picnic groves, concession stands, a merry-go-round, sideshows, games of chance, and a dance floor. A German Oom-pah band could be heard every weekend in summer.

Another attraction for the excursionists was a little riverboat operated by Nick White, an enterprising railroad conductor. For 25¢, riders were given a two and one-half mile cruise upstream from the docks just outside the park.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.