Do you have photos you'd like to share? Do you know where parts of Santa's Village went to?
Please contact us.
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Santa's Village Bobsled Ride
About The Bobsled...
The "how's" and "why's" of Castle Corps coming to own The Bobsled are well documented in several articles of The Castle Crier. Unfortunately, those issues are far enough into the history of The Crier that it may be a little while before they will be posted to this site, so I suppose some brief information is in order.
What is The Bobsled?
The Bobsled is a small portable roller coaster, ideally suited for travelling carnivals, circuses, etc. It was manufacturerd in the late 1950's by the Allen Hershell company. Somewhere in the mid 60's, it was permanently installed in the Santa's Village amusement park in Scotts Valley, California.
Santa's Village went bankrupt in the late 1970's. Borland International bought the property of the old amusement park for it's corporate headquarters, and began disposing of the remaining rides such as the Storybookland Train, and the spinning snowballs ride (which was refurbished, re-themed, and now sits under the Logger's Revenge log flume ride at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
To make a long story short, The Bobsled was not claimed by anyone, and the Castle Corps was able to save it from the scrap heap with only a few weeks to spare.
It has been moved about in its disassembled form a couple times since being moved from the old Santa's Village property. It currently awaits restoration work (and about a 10 x 30 meter flat area to set it up) on some property in the Sierra Nevada foothills, near Groveland, California. |
If you have any souvenirs, pictures or stories to contribute, you
can email us here. If you need to mail your photos to us, be sure
you send us the copies of the originals or included a SASE so we
can return them after scanning. Mail to:
Santa's Village
c/o Wild Wolf Webmasters
PO Box 5156
Santa Cruz, CA 95063
This part of Santa's Village memories are always going to have new names added to it as people like you send us their photos of the Christmas theme parks. You can take photos of the Santa's Village items you've collected and email them to us. Go to the closet and dig out those old family photos from when you visited Santa's Village ... even better, if you have home movies of Santa's Village, we'd really love to have a copy for publication.
Maybe you don't have any photos, but you remember what it was like when you visited Santa's Village ... sit down and write about your memories, email it to us, and we'll add your memories to our web site too!
Do you own one of the rides from the old Santa's Village theme park or some of the props? We want to know where are they now?
Craig Polson -
Owns the bobsled ride from the Scotts Valley park and has contributed video, photos and documents.
Santa's Village takes great pride in presenting the book that commemorates the Dundee Santa's Village in Illinois. It's written by the last Santa Claus of the Santa's Village parks, and his historical knowledge of all the parks will delight you with insidghts and memories alike. Get your copy of Santa's Village here.
Images of America
SANTA’S VILLAGE
PHILLIP L. WENZ
Since 1959, Santa’s Village in Dundee, has entertained millions. The park was born of a man who as a child had no real Christmas. Glenn Holland grew up in California during the Great Depression. His parents died by the time he was 18 years old, leaving him to care for his younger sister. As a father, he tried to give his own children the type of Christmas that he only knew in his dreams. In the early 1950s, struck with inspiration, Holland sat at his kitchen table one day and started to sketch his idea for a Christmas fairyland where all the magic of the holiday would come to life: Santa’s Village. Holland and general contractor Putnam Henck built three Santa’s Villages, two in California and one in Dundee.
Phillip L. Wenz is the Dundee Park’s resident Santa Claus and official historian. Besides his duties at Santa’s Village, Wenz has been seen in numerous televised parades and national holiday events. Utilizing his personal collection of pictures, memorabilia, and rare park photographs, readers can once again reminisce about the fun of Santa’s Village throughout the years. It is all here, the Christmas Tree Ride, the twirling Snowballs, Santa’s House, and the Frozen North Pole.
The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.
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Sponors of Santa's Village:
Christmas Kids - a delightful website full of historical information about Christmas.
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