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Indiana. After we restored it the inspector, who had
inspected the same ride in Indiana, didn't even recognise
Mad Mouse
Teen-free
it. He had to check the serial number to be sure.”
According to Darrell
The only ride Klompmaker and Merrick purchased Klompmaker, “there is no teen
new was a Red Baron, from Sampson. “We needed crowd,” at Little Amerricka. ”The
one, and as popular as that ride is, they're tough to find
teenagers are surprised that the
used.”
park is only open until 6pm,” he
Of course, you can't always get what you want.
says. “After 6, the teenagers
Klompmaker and Merrick wanted a flume and thought
would come and hang out and
they had found one at another park that was closing,
not spend any money, and with
Old Indiana, in the state of the same name. “They had
no gate admission, we'd lose
money. But our business is the
a small log flume, smallest I've ever seen, but perfect
young families. After they spent
for us. The bidding started at 85,000, and it was in
the day with us, they need to go
bad shape, so we passed. Then I flew to Miracle Strip home for supper, and that's the
in Panama Beach when they closed in 2004. Their he put up his own miniature train. He sold Christmas end of the day.
flume there was bigger, but I knew we could use the trees in the winter. People would come to his land, ride
“We still wonder if we're
smaller of the two lifts. So I made a very small offer, the train out to where the Christmas trees were, pick out
hurting ourselves by not having
hoping they'd call me and say 'Hey, take it off our a tree, and ride back with the tree in the train. It was
teenagers. Up to this point,
hands!' But they never called back.” very popular. I began by running the train, and soon Lee
we've paid cash for everything,
Log flume or not, what might sound like a patchwork added a second tree building, where the park is now.
and that's been the reason we
effort to make an amusement park, even a small family That second building became our main concession
don't have teenage rides. We
don't want to take a loan for a
park, has resulted in a well-situated and unified building and our offices, the genesis of Little Amerricka.”
major ride. But I also wonder,
package, with its two-mile train ride as its centrepiece. “Lee had already purchased four rides, which were in
would we enjoy running the park
Which is fitting, because that's what started it all, and storage: the Ferris Wheel, Tilt-A-Whirl, a fire truck ride as much if we started catering to
that was how Darrell Klompmaker met Lee Merrick. and bumper cars. So we started talking about a fully- the teenagers?” He pauses for a
“I was a musician, but I'd always loved trains,” fledged park. He offered me a job in 1989, and since
moment. “I don't think so. We're
Klompmaker explains, “and I wanted to build my own I'd just been laid off from my previous job, I accepted.
going to keep marketing
miniature railroad. That was how I met Lee in 1987. “I kind of fell into the amusement industry,” admits
ourselves as we have been.”
He'd just bought the property that is now the park, and Darrell. “Lee didn't really have a plan, he just had the
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