Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
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The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is an oceanfront amusement park in Santa Cruz, California. Founded in 1907 and operated by the family-owned Santa Cruz Seaside Company, it is California's oldest surviving amusement park and one of two seaside parks on the West Coast of the United States (the other being the Santa Monica Pier). The West Coast once hosted many more beach parks, including the Pike in Long Beach, California and Playland at San Francisco's Ocean Beach. Both have long since closed, but the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk survives as a reminder of a bygone era in amusement.
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[edit] Overview
The Boardwalk extends along the coast of the Monterey Bay, from just east of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf to the mouth of the San Lorenzo River. At the western edge of the park lies a large building known as the Casino, which contains a video arcade, an indoor miniature golf course, a laser tag arena and the Cocoanut Grove banquet room and conference center. A Laffing Sal automated character, from Playland-at-the-Beach, lies near the miniature golf course. (The Casino does not offer gambling.)
East of the Casino, the boardwalk portion of the park stretches along a wide, sandy beach visitors can access easily from the park. The eastern end of the boardwalk is dominated by the Giant Dipper roller coaster, one of the best-known wooden coasters in the world and one of the most visible landmarks in Santa Cruz. The Dipper and the Looff Carousel, which still contains its original 342-pipe organ built in 1894, are both on the United States National Register of Historic Places and were, together, declared to be a National Historic Landmark. In addition, the park itself is a California State Historic Landmark.
In many ways, the Boardwalk has changed little from its turn-of-the-century origins. Old-fashioned carnival games and snack booths can be found throughout the park. There are no upscale shopping venues, restaurants with full table service or other more modern amenities typical of newer Disney, Universal and Six Flags theme parks. The atmosphere can be said to invoke East Coast seaside parks, such as Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York and the many parks on the Jersey Shore.
As of 2007, the park is headed by Charles Canfield, the son of Laurence Canfield who purchased the park from Charles I. D. Looff in the 1950's.
[edit] History
The Boardwalk was founded by Santa Cruz businessman Fred Swanton, who aimed to create a "Coney Island" for the West Coast. Swanton began his project in 1904 with the original Casino. Twenty-two months after it opened, the building was gutted by a devastating fire that started in the kitchen. Rebuilding began just a few months later; the original Boardwalk, a pier and a new Casino opened in 1907.
In 1911, woodcarver and amusement park pioneer Charles Looff created the Looff Carousel. His son, Arthur, suggested that the park owners replace the park's first thrill ride, the aging L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway, with a modern wooden coaster, the Giant Dipper, which was designed by the younger Looff and opened in 1924.
Business slowed down during the Great Depression and World War II, but the Casino's Cocoanut Grove ballroom was at its peak, attracting popular big band leaders like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Lawrence Welk.
Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, the amusement industry went through many important changes. Interstate highways and affordable airline travel gave people greater options for where to spend their vacation time. Disneyland and the Six Flags parks drew visitors away from many older local parks, including the Pike and Playland-at-the-Beach. The Boardwalk survived — and thrived — by introducing many new attractions and undergoing an extensive renovation in the early 1980s.
On 25 June 2006 the new ride WipeOut opened, featuring music written by the park's Audio Specialist, Donaven Staab. On 22 June 2007 the Boardwalk turned 100 years old, marking "100 Years of Fun".
The Boardwalk is California’s oldest amusement park and a State Historic Landmark. It is the home to two National Historic Landmarks — the 1911 Looff Carousel and the 1924 Giant Dipper roller coaster. The park has been owned and operated by the Santa Cruz Seaside Company since 1915[1].
In March of 2007, the Boardwalk installed a Wurlitzer band organ to use along with the Adolf Ruth & Sohn organ already in place. It was bought for a price of $250,000 and restored by the Boardwalk. The new Wurlitzer organ features a front portion that serves as a façade to hide the inner workings of the organ. The front also features beautifully rendered illustrations of the San Francisco Cliff House, and more.
[edit] Photo gallery
 View from the bay |
 Monterey Bay beach, east of the wharf |
 The midway, near the entrance to the Giant Dipper coaster |
 Roof of the Carousel |
 Fireball swing |
 WipeOut |
[edit] Trivia
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- At Disney's California Adventure Park, the "Paradise Pier" area takes much of its inspiration from the Boardwalk and other California oceanfront amusement parks.
- Santa Cruz City Councilman Ryan Coonerty proclaimed 27 May 2005 as Laffing Sal Day. [2]
- The Boardwalk was featured prominently in the films Sudden Impact (1983) and The Lost Boys (1987). It was also featured in the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact as the location of the fairgrounds of the fictional town of San Paulo.
- The Giant Dipper was featured in the introduction to the film The Naked Gun.
- Caltrain is exploring extension of service to the Boardwalk and the City of Santa Cruz via Watsonville. Trains would operate from San Francisco to San Jose and Gilroy, then operate on existing Union Pacific (formerly Southern Pacific) lines on a spur from Gilroy. Caltrain operations would terminate at the existing station currently used by the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway tourist line next to the Boardwalk. Service to Santa Cruz would likely only operate on weekends, holidays, and daily during the summer, with Watsonville being the normal terminus. Service to and from Union City and Fremont would also be possible when Caltrain completes their Dumbarton Rail Corridor project.
- Part of the video for Mr Pitiful, by Matt Costa, is filmed on the Boardwalk, with signs for The Big Dipper can be seen.
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