What happened to Bedrock City amusement park in Arizona?
Lost on the corner of Arizona State Route 64, the amusement park was designed in the theme of pick stones – an American animated sitcom that has enjoyed success for three decades and follows the lives of a family in a fictionalized Stone Age setting. The sculptures of dinosaurs, organic houses and colorful wild animals have been installed since 1972 on 12 hectares of land. What is the story behind this forgotten cult park?
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Accessible by long dirt roads, the folk park traces prehistoric life from a retro-modern perspective. Little known today, this historic site is one of the only road attractions the united states Between plastered facades, multicolored caves of all kinds and nuanced settings, the amusement park remains faithful to the caricature cult of the 1960s – and its Pierrafian universe. Nestled about a thirty-minute drive from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the rock park and its slides were once complete with a restaurant, shop and offered a train ride to visit the homes of the sitcom characters. The theme park and its attractions closed almost 50 years after the episodes of the animated series.
The amusement park on the brink of extinction…
The town is a near-perfect, life-size replica of the houses that littered the iconic cartoon. The park revives the caricature which has survived many scandals. Accused of plagiarism, considered ” cheesy » of young people, shunned by the media and today threatened with extinction, the cartoon almost never enjoyed the success it enjoyed some time after its broadcast on ABC.
Vintage pop, the rock park is today an abandoned place, almost in disrepair. Forced to close its doors, the ghost park that was designed as time travel is today seen as ” weird and nasty shit “. Having become a sanctuary for birds and other raptors, the park and its parking lot have fallen into ruins, revealing buildings damaged by time, peeling paint, and holed roofs. The desolate backdrop to the fictional town no longer attracts visitors as it has been renamed Raptor Ranch and a change of ownership – which preserved the remains of the park and created an area to better understand birds and promote nature conservation.
A futile sale?
Up for sale for $2 million, the park, which saw more than 5 million tourists a year, is now abandoned. ” They are a page right out of history » as the credit song said.