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Our Rich History: A new book, ‘Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana’ by Carrie Cook Ketterman


By Paul A. Tenkotte
Special to NKyTribune

Eating packed picnic lunches underneath shady trees;
enjoying trips along the Ohio River;
watching people go by;
savoring ice cream on a sweltering day,
feeling the breeze as amusement rides whirled, sped, and tossed us around.

It was a gentler and slower time during summers, when families and friends took streetcars and steamboats to their favorite amusement parks. Many of these began as picnic groves accessible by steamboat. Others were started by streetcar companies to increase ridership along their lines. Across America, small amusement parks dotted the landscape in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Beginning in the 1960s, they were slowly displaced by mammoth amusement parks, where roller coasters became taller, faster, and more high tech, echoing the urban sprawl of which they were both a cause and a symptom.

Carrie Cooke Ketterman, in a new book entitled Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana, offers us a nostalgic glimpse of small amusement parks in the Louisville, Kentucky/Southern Indiana region named “Kentuckiana.”

The cover of Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana, by Carrie Cooke Ketterman, illustrates the beach at Fontaine Ferry Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

The oldest of the Kentuckiana amusement parks was Fern Grove on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, which began as a picnic grove in the mid-1880s. In 1923, Louisville businessman David Rose purchased the park, renaming it Rose Island. The Idlewild, a steamboat now known as the Belle of Louisville, carried park visitors to Rose Island. There they could enjoy amenities ranging from a hotel to summer cottages, a dance pavilion, dining hall, skating rink, and a giant swimming pool.

In 1903, the Louisville and Southern Indiana Traction Company built Glenwood Park, on the Indiana side of the river. Streetcar patrons from both shores rode to the new park that featured “an open-air theater, a stage that could seat 1,200 people, a dance pavilion, a bandstand, rides, a shooting gallery, boating in the nearby creek, bathing complete with swimsuits to rent, a bowling alley, a miniature railroad, swings, an athletic field, and a refreshment stand” (p. 8).

The Louisville side of the Ohio River featured White City, a short-lived amusement destination (1907-1912), as well as the region’s largest and longest-lasting amusement park, Fontaine Ferry Park (1905-1969). Built on the estate of ferryboat operator, Captain Aaron Fontaine, it grew to include fifty rides. The Idlewild also carried parkgoers to Fontaine Ferry.

Sadly, like other similar amusement areas nationwide, Fontaine Ferry was a segregated, whites-only destination for the vast majority of its life. Park officials integrated the park in 1964 and its pool in 1965. On May 4, 1969, the park’s official season opening, a riot occurred at Fontaine Ferry. The owners closed the park the next day and announced that it would be up for sale.

Purchased in 1972, Fontaine Ferry became the short-lived “Ghost Town on the River,” featuring rides and a “wild west” theme. In 1975, its last year of operation, the park was renamed River Glen Park.

Profusely illustrated, this 128-page Arcadia Publishing book will rekindle memories of those who remember the old amusement parks of yesteryear and will document history for those too young to have experienced them.

Ketterman, Carrie Cooke. Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2019.

We want to learn more about the history of your business, church, school, or organization in our region (Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and along the Ohio River). If you would like to share your rich history with others, please contact the editor of “Our Rich History,” Paul A. Tenkotte, at tenkottep@nku.edu. Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD is Professor of History at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) and the author of many books and articles.


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One Comment

  1. Mercedes Eckert says:

    Do you know of the theme park called Sycamore Island in New Albany?

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