Action Park was a waterpark/motor themed park open from 1978 to 1996 in Vernon Township, New Jersey, on the property of the former Vernon Valley / Great Gorge ski area, today Mountain Creek. Its popularity went hand in hand with a reputation for poorly-designed, unsafe rides; inattentive, under-aged, underpaid and sometimes under-the-influence employees; equally intoxicated and under-prepared visitors—and the poor safety record that followed from this perfect storm of circumstances. (via Ed)
Oh Action Park, I miss you.
“Action Park was a true rite of passage for any New Jerseyan of my generation. When I get to talking about it with other Jerseyans, we share stories as if we are veterans who served in combat together. I suspect that many of us may have come closest to death on some of those rides up in Vernon Valley. I consider it a true shame that future generations will never know the terror of proving their grit at New Jersey’s most dangerous amusement park.”
