Urban Decay: The death of an amusement park

It was like walking through a bad movie set in California… At the same time, it felt as if someone was watching my every step.

I was at Guntown Mountain Amusement Park in Cave City, Kentucky. The park opened in 1969 and closed down a number of years ago. It was later purchased by a Louisville, KY businessman who had big dreams in 2015. Will Russell renamed the park “Funtown Mountain” and reopened it with the idea of a multi-million dollar renovation plan set for the near future.

While the park was once again opened in 2015, the renovation plan was never executed.

The Courier Journal newspaper reported that Mr. Russell saw his plans threatened after a severe manic episode related to bipolar disorder. Later that year, the Cave City Police Department shut down Funtown after vandalism and looting were reported on the property. The article suggested that Will Russell somehow instigated the crime, but failed to report as to why that accusation was made.

The newly named Funtown was quickly closed for good when bank payments could not be made on loans to keep the park active. It was later sold at Auction in April of 2016 for less than $300,000. The new owner had grand plans of turning the property into a resort complete with zip lines, cabins and an indoor water park. Those grandiose plans have yet to materialize and the park sits like the movie set of an old Friday the 13th movie.

“We're all lonely for something we don't know we're lonely for. How else to explain the curious feeling that goes around feeling like missing somebody we've never even met?” 
― David Foster Wallace, American Writer (1962-2008)

His step father called him retarded over and over

They sat quietly in their small motel room rolling their own cigarettes to save money. Everything they own was inside the small 12 X 17 foot room that was coated in a smoke filled purple. Lamps lit the space occupied by the couple and their small dog.

Daniel told me the most painful thing he grew up with was his adopted father calling him retarded time and time again due to his learning disability. He said that his step father, who is actually his uncle that adopted him at age two, told him that he would amount to nothing.

Cassie said the most painful memory she has was that her father would tell her that she should not love her mother. Of course, she lived with her mother and three siblings. It was her mother that raised her, fought for her and held down a job while living in a motel so that Cassie and the others would have a place to sleep. 

Once you are down, it is hard to get back up. Cassie explained that not too many months back, she had to stay at the motel where her mother lives for two weeks while her mom was hospitalized. She stayed in her mother’s room to look after her two younger siblings that had to be in school each day while her mother clung to life with her kidneys and even heart slowly shutting down. 

Like Cassie, her mother is a fighter. She survived. But, it is one thing after another when you are at the bottom. A $20 bill can feel like a $4,000 bill. A $600 motel room is likely equivalent to a $5,000 house payment when you can barely afford food. Help for depression, it is almost nonexistent, as explained by Cassie while sitting in her dimly lit room.

Hear the entire story below (8MIN and 41SEC):

"It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up." - Vince Lombardi

He plays the French Harp

Rick is from Syracuse N.Y., but later moved to Kentucky for the local university in Richmond where he says he taught up until computers were brought in as teaching devices.

“How old do you think I am,” he asked me. I did not know where to start guessing, which he could obviously tell as he blurted out, “71, No one believes me.”

He told me about his love for music and said, “I play the French Harp.” Surprised I asked, “You have a harp… Like a giant gold leafed harp?” He smiled and laughed… “They call the harmonica the French Harp. It is a name that dates well before your time.”

“How is it that music can, without words, evoke our laughter, our fears, our highest aspirations?” ― Jane Swan, former Professor of History at West Chester University in Pennsylvania (1925-2010)

Those expensive horses...

“I’ve been coming here since I was a baby,” he told me while standing inside the back entrance to the Keenland Racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky. The track is a Thoroughbred horse racing facility that was first opened in 1936.

With a history that spans over 80 years, lots of residents in Kentucky have memories growing up around the track. “My daddy worked here for years with the horses,” he explained.

*(Sorry for the language, not mine, but his statement) I asked him, “Have you ever dreamed of racing them or raising a race horse?” He seemed irritated at my whimsical question as if only the chosen could raise such a thoroughbred, “Oh hell no – Shit no, Shit no! Those things - - That would cost over a million dollars… Seriously? WTF…” He then walked off and I could only grin at the thought of how much pride, excitement and honor has been placed on these race horses and track over the years.

“The racehorse, by virtue of his awesome physical gifts, freed the jockey from himself. When a horse and a jockey flew over the track together, there were moments in which the man's mind wedded itself to the animal's body to form something greater than the sum of both parts.” ― Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Off to the Races

Race horses are bred for one thing… to run. 

If you have ever been to the races, have you taken the time to watch the muscular horses make their way to and from their stalls? They fight their handler all the way in. They show their teeth, they pull away, they strut the opposite direction, and they sometimes rare back onto their hind feet. 

The Thoroughbred race horse resembles its historic Arabian descendants. It is a horse that is stout and quick to jump, run or escape the rider in some cases. 

The American Quarter horse is a popular breed in races as well. The smaller, muscular horses have sometimes been clocked at speeds of 55 miles per hour. The life expectancy is usually around 27 to 30-years of both Quarter horses and Thoroughbred’s, assuming no serious injuries end that life early. 

When I think of race horses, I think of that old school jazz infused big band style of music. I think of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Betty Grable. 

“Gal is like a racehorse, I play her to win
But if I should lose her, another may come in
Love can be like heaven, love can be a joke
But it's worth a gamble so, hey, I go for broke”
- Dean Martin, “Who’s Got the Action”

Sadness

I highlighted this man in a March 2016 photo. When looking back, I forgot what his photo looked like in color. So, I grabbed a color version of one that I took and quickly noticed the sadness in his face seemed to intensify with color.

He told me that he was placed into the foster care system at age 6. A woman in Indiana later adopted him.

“My mom (talking about his adopted mother), was like Aunt Bee on the Andy Griffith Show,” he said with a smile.

As he continued to describe his adopted parents he said to me, “My dad (adopted father) was an Evangelist.” I could tell he was proud of the parents who raised him in life, but he was struggling.

A string of bad choices mixed with a little bad luck landed him on the streets. Today he is 48-years old.

The conversation took a downturn, “I buried my best friend yesterday,” he said while looking down. When I asked who died he said, “My mom.”

“Tears are words that need to be written.” ― Paulo Coelho, Novelist

It was once one of the largest Army and German P.O.W. Bases in the South

Prior to World War II, a large military base formed in Union County Kentucky. The United States Government came in and gave farmers below what would be considered fair market value at the time for their land. The flat acreage where you could see as far as 16-miles proved to be the perfect training grounds troops to learn war weaponry of guns and tanks. The rural area is a little over an hour away from Clarksville near the Indiana state line.

Camp Breckinridge in Union County was the headquarters of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

As World War II broke out in 1937, the U.S. Army quickly realized they needed a place to house German Prisoners of War. The base in Union County became the official P.O.W. prison camp housing 3,000 Germans.

The base population stood at about 45 thousand residents prior and during WWII and later the Korean War. The large base was also home to basic training for new Army recruits in the 30’s and 40’s.

Today, the population in Union County, Kentucky is about 15,000 residents. Of course, that is a drastic drop compared to the 45,000 military residents and 3,000 inmates that called Union County home between 1930 and 1950.

Most of the old World War II era barracks that were left standing were sold to investors in the 1970’s as the land was divided, but the majority of the military classrooms, prison walls, prison cells, cafeteria’s and stores on the massive base were torn down when the government shut the base down. Investors later hired contractors to perform low cost renovations on the interior of the 1930 era barracks dividing them into duplexes so that they could be rented out to residents of low income brackets.

As we drove through what was once the base, every 50 to 100 feet you could see large smoke stacks protruding through heavily dense wooded areas that were to my right and left. I then stopped the truck and walked into the woods to further examine the stack's. I could still see the concrete foundations to old military buildings that probably went for miles. There were 50 or more stacks on the land in the area near the old barracks.

A railroad once ran between the military base and the Ohio River, which was only about 7 miles away. Supplies were shipped to the base on barges and by rail. 
On the banks of the river, we found a massive chain that may have once been used to tie off the barges while they unloaded. The large chain was about six inches in diameter.

As you look at these photos, imagine it a base that was once alive and vibrant.