MANITOBA

Lockport

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Rendezvous Park
(1950 - ?)

    This park on the east bank of the Red River was owned by Casey Shows (a carnival operation) as a permanent base for them and as a business with which to rotate rides among the park and their travelling carnival set-ups.

    It was opened by E.J. Casey in 1950 and covered 6 hectares of a former fishing & picnic area. The latter was continued as twenty picnic tables with colourful umbrellas along side of the river were provided along with barbecue grates. There were also washrooms with toilets and hot & cold water.

    There was a boardwalk with twelve concessions including a ball toss, bingo, darts, "Hoop La" and "Glass Pitch" games, and a penny arcade. Food outlets sold candy floss, hamburgers, hot dogs, popcorn, and soft drinks.

    Attractions were the "Crazy House", the "Funhouse" with magic mirrors and "Slide For Life", a giant Eli Ferris Wheel, "Caterpillar" (Traver ?), "Loop-o-Plane" (Eyerly), "Flying Saucers" and a "Boomerang". It's likely that these changed often as rides were rotated by Casey Shows with its travelling carnivals.

    A Kiddie Land featured a jeep ride, carousel, boat ride, train ride, kiddie cars, aeroplanes, and five ponies. Many of those sound like Herschell products. A free wading pool and sandboxes rounded out the attractions.

    For 1953, advertisements stated that they had 14 rides and a zoo in Kiddieland.

    In 1954, Rendezvous became one of the first Canadian amusement parks to open on Sundays. It is unknown when the park closed, but it is now home to the Lockport Provincial Heritage Park. It commemorates the ancient native agricultural and fishing grounds of the area.

    An interesting footnote is that apparently, Casey Shows had the River Park coaster in storage, but nothing ever came of it. One wonders how such a great coaster became lost to amusement history.

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