John Collins, who owned Lincoln Park in North Dartmouth, MA, took ownership of Mountain Park in 1952.  He turned the operation over to his son Jay Collins and brother Dennis.  He brought with him some amazing artizans who would re-shape the midway and create the park's second golden age.

The park always opened on Easter Day.  But in New England that often meant putting in a little extra work to get the park in shape.  Crews often had to plow the midway clear of snow.  A sled might have been a better choice for the Mountain Flyer on this particular day.

The once-empty center of the midway was filled with kiddie rides.  It was perfect timing: soldiers had returned from World War II and started families.  They needed someplace to take their children, and Mountain Park was the place.  This shot was taken on Easter Day, 1960.  The park's first day of the season was always Easter, no matter how cold it was.

The crowd is thick in this shot from 1958.  The little girl in the center of the photo on the Turtles is Karen, sitting next to her twin brother and her sister.

The carousel still did a good business.  Notice the original PTC stenciling on the sweeps.

One of the many things the Collins family did to foster a community spirit was sponsor the big Mountain Park Road Race, an annual event that drew runners from all over.

I still have delightful memories of this ride.  It was nothing more than a pushcar, but it was a lot of fun.  Notice the Mountain Park Zephyr in the background before it was re-located.

Eddie Leis, an engineer and roller coaster designer, was kept on at Mountain Park to make improvements.  He designed an built this Bumper Boat ride.  The trough wasn't quite wide enough, though, and the boats kept getting jammed.  The ride lasted only a few years before it was replaced with:

These Hot Rods were hugely popular, as is evident by these students of Saint Mary's.  This was often the first real driving experience kids had.  There was one man in charge of maintaining them.  When he died, the Hot Rods were removed.  The Scrambler and Bubble Bounce replaced it, but the little maintenance building remained.

I found this amazing photo on eBay.  Romeo Henault is piloting the Zephyr in 1957.  The Mountain Flyer station is on the left.  But more fascinating is the lift hill of the wooden kiddie coaster on the right, adjacent to the Stardust Ballroom.  I never knew that existed.  It pre-dates the Schiff steel kiddie coaster.  The buildings to the left of the ballroom are rest rooms.

Romeo Henault again pilots the Mountain Park Zephyr on one of its early voyages around the brand new miniature golf course he helped construct, The Mountain Park Country Club.  To the right is the side of the Stardust Ballroom.  Collins used the open land between the ballroom and the Mountain Flyer coaster to create the most spectacular 18-hole mini-golf course in the region, with lights for night play and three waterfalls.

This postcard from 1962 shows Romeo again at the helm of the Zephyr as it passes under the short tunnel on the golf course. The train station would be just off the image to the right.

The Toonerville Trolley is another happy memory I have.  Note the zig-zagging track.  The ride was based on a cartoon of the same name.

The park cultivated a good relationship with corporations all over the Pioneer Valley.  Every season, most every major area business would buy out the park for a day and treat their employees to a relaxing day on the mountain.  These families from Monsanto pose for a picture in the ball field.

Dominic Spadola was an itinerant artist from Rhode Island.  He had a hand in the look of many New England parks, including Lincoln Park.  Collins brought him to Holyoke to work on Mountain Park.  He created some amazing architecture, with Ed Leis handling the structural and mechanical elements.  For many years, this spectacular sign stood a mile down the road on Route 5, beckoning passersby.  There were also 26 signs leading up to the park, sort of like the old Burma Shave ads, that listed each and every ride in the park.

Look familiar? On a trip to Las Vegas, John Collins spotted this billboard on the side of the road.  He not only took a picture of it, he actually measured it.  On the back of the Polaroid photo, he wrote, "Las Vegas billboard 12x40, clown 14x20, nose 4' diameter red & white, Mar 2 1961, Pioneer Club orange letters, background blue."

Collins kept experimenting with different rides and placements.  This circular mound was the highest point on the midway, and a perfect place for the Flying Jets (at least until they got the Satellite a few years later).  Notice the Bubble Bounce in the background, on the area that eventually would be occupied by the Sky Ride.  The clearing for the ball field is just visible at the upper left of the image.

The Bubble Bounce was a simple concept: a revolving platform had a series of circular revolving cabs on it.  Every so often, the entire platform would lift up sideways with a wooooosh! and then settle back down.  Kids loved it.

This proud group of boy scouts stands at attention for a picture up at the ball field.

Dinosaurs became all the rage with kids in the 1960s.  To capitalize on this, the park themed one of their dark rides to the prehistoric creatures.  And Collins also had Dominic paint this two-panel display illustrating the different species.

Collins purchased a Big Eli 16-cab Ferris Wheel in the early '60s and placed it in the center of the midway, in front of the carousel.  It gave terrific views of the Pioneer Valley, and it also went unnervingly fast.

The original PTC roller coaster trains were showing their age.  So in 1962, Collins (through Ed Leis) purchased two new sets of these gorgeous National Amusement Device trains.  A battery under the front seat originally powered the headlights.

The Satellite was purchased in 1963.  It was manufactured by the German company Klaus, which constructed the ride out of discarded tank parts from World War II.  Note the new roof of the Dodgem building in the background.  Collins got the idea from seeing a geodesic dome at a World's Fair.

Spadola made many modifications to the look of the walk-thru Fun House over the years.  This version was really eye-catching.

This shot, taken from the Ferris wheel around 1966, gives a bird's eye view of the north midway.  In the center, from the bottom, are the Swinging Cages, Midway Lunch (with the Birthday Game and the Cotton Candy stand to either side), Tilt-a-Whirl and the Satellite.  Clockwise from left are Playland, Out of This World, the Color Game, Mountain Flyer, Mt. Park Country Club and the Dodgems.

Robert and Margo Kane go for a spin with a large friend in 1970.

Jay Collins decided to lease the park to ARASERV in 1971.  That food service company had never run a park before.  The first thing that happened was the Tap Room and ballroom burned to the ground in a catastrophic explosion.  ARASERV replaced the structures with a big blue metal roof for picnics.  Then ARASERV added a few new rides.  One was this Sky Ride, a chair lift through the picnic grove and down to Animal Land, a short-lived zoo.  The Sky Ride cost an extra 50 cents to ride (to help deter the riff-raff) and was really popular with parents looking for relaxation.

One of the last rides to be purchased for the park, the Tempest was known by park employees as "the Puke Machine."  It was badly designed and a maintenance nightmare but Roger Fortin kept it in good shape right up until the park closed.  The ride can still be found around the New England carnival circuit, operated by Fanelli Amusements.

Nuns from various religious orders around New England would come to the park for a day of fun each year.  Here, a group enjoys ice cream while watching their fellow sisters on the Hot Rods.

The Kiddie Boats were always busy, and a ride that many people fondly remember from childhood.  This shot from 1980 also shows the Puffing Billy train that replaced the Toonerville Trolley.

Contrary to what many people think, Mountain Park's business stayed strong right till the end -- as evident from this view of Kiddieland taken in 1980.

The last walk-thru fun house built at the park was Out of This World, a spectacular space-themed extravaganza.  As years went on, insurance for fun houses became exhorbitant.  Two years after this 1980 photo was taken, the ride was dismantled and converted into an arcade.

This is a view from the 1980s looking north through Kiddieland.  The towers pizza concession would be just to the right and Frosty Joy and the Bubble Bounce would be to the left. Although this section looks deserted, you can see a crowd of people further in the distance.

James Parsons worked as a clown at Pine Island Park, where he acquired his nickname Pippo.  When that park closed, he came to Mountain Park, where Jay Collins put him in charge of the games.  He was an amazing barker, and is best remembered for "his" game, the Dolly Pitch, where he would call out, "Put a dime in the bowl, win a prize!"

Mabel Zinn was another memorable Mountain Park figure.  She was the park's "matron" best remembered for cheerily greeting guests with a "Hi Lovee!" and wearing outlandish hats.  Her hat in this photo is a miniature working amusement park.

Richard Stefanik relaxes with one of the park's more popular inanimate objects, the cowboy.

This remarkable shot was taken in 1982 from the Mountain Flyer turnaround.  Note the Flying Jets at the lower right.

Roger and Mary Ann Goodwin owned the little stand between the merry-go-round and the Dodgems.  They sold cotton candy, candy apples, pretzels and their most popular delicacy, frozen chocolate-covered bananas on a stick.

The Dodgems were built in Lawrence, MA.  The cars were steel with hard rubber bumpers.  Each day the bumpers were sprayed with silicone and powdered graphite was sprinkled on the steel floor to keep things slippery.  The wall of mirrors and lights at the back gave the building a much more spacious feel.  Note the doorway at the back right, which led to a long narrow repair shop.  At the far end of that shop originally a small furnished room that was the home of Fanny Hubbs Mason, the ride's owner.  Rumor has it she died at the park and was buried under the Dodgems.

This shot from 1986 was taken next to the Dodgems looking south down the midway.  The carousel building is on the left; on the right is the cotton candy stand.

My dad, John Ducharme, got me my job at Mountain Park.  He started off working on Out of This World and the Satellite, moved to the train and ended up on the Dinosaur Den (pictured here) and Pirate's Den.  He was sad when the park closed.

The park's closing was so sudden, no one had time to absorb the shock.  I thought that surely someone would buy the park and keep it running.  But in the middle of a recession, there were no takers.  The park sat idle, awaiting its fate.

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