G$ Kurt Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 Today I am finally getting to putting up my pictures from the Azoosment Park at Santa's Village. The park opened a couple of weeks ago and has been doing well so far. For those unaware of the history, Santa's Village was a small time park in Northern ILL for nearly fifty years. It closed in 2006 and most everything was auctioned from the park. The land is now leased to two groups, the Azoosment park at Santas Village and Paintball explosion, each utilizing a half of the property. These pictures were taken before the park opened for the day, thus the lack of people. These were also taken with my phone, so please excuse some lesser quality pictures. I will get to the pictures and let them do the talking.. Welcome to Santa's Village! Looking back at the entrance building from here you used to go left or right, but since Azoosment Park is only on half the property, now it's only open to the right. See.. Then we come across Santa's house The northpole outside Santa's house will be coming back in a couple of weeks Santa has lovely mushroom landscaping The old platform for the snowball tea cup ride is now home to hand cars Pretty cool magic show Santa's Treehouse Slide, a Santa's Village original Here is the home to the zoo side of the Azoosment Park They have some cool animals, fox's and deers and a camel and many other fun furry things. This is where the reindeer live Pony rides, horse rides, and the goofiest camel I'v ever seen are all back here. They have since finished painting the barn. It's also on this side of the park where you can catch a glimpse of the abandoned side of the property. Shows how much work they had to put into the rest of it! A really nice convoy ride. Another Santa's Village original Ballon Race, this particular ride came from Fun Spot in Indiana. Here is where they sell beer and such Midgo-racers, a Kiddieland ride Roto-whip, another Kiddieland ride Ice Cream shop Nice water feature They have a daily game show and an exotic animal show at this stage This is another food location, but it has a little surprise behind it..... Lama and bonus lama! Kiddie Wheel, also from Fun Spot So is the Scooby Swings A credit! Still has some work to do though... But should be open very soon Impromptu fence Star jets with many themed rockets, here is Men in Black.. Nascar... Batman... tasteful choice of theming The best ride in the park, the tilt-a-whirl. Also from Fun Spot A building full of birds and such. The sign on the building calls it Santa's Scales and Feathers. Sounds like Santa has one hell of a disease Lets go over here! The picnic grove is still here and quite nice but racing rapids.... is still closed This old ticket window sure is filled with a lot of negativity... But what do we have here! its another rescue from Fun spot. It will soon be living here, behind the hand cars Mr. Ostrich wants you to come see Azoosment park For real, the Azoosment Park is a great place and a great value to take the little ones to for the day, If you are in the area you should stop by! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jojo19799 Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 Great pics thanks for sharing! It's nice to see that some of the smaller rides from Kiddieland and Fun Spot have a new home. I think this park has a lot of potential and I hope it has a good turn out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airtime&Gravity Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 Great photos and report. I grew up going to this park, and even though I only remember it in its rundown form, I was sad to see it close. It's great to see the park come back, and amazing to see how much work was done in a relatively limited time. Some areas, and especially the paths, look like they could still use some work, but the park looks far better than it did before it closed. From other photos I've seen, the park appears to be doing fairly well, and hopefully the crowds don't die off once the newness goes away. Even with the paintball and other attractions, there is still a lot of room to expand(the property goes a ways back into the forest), and it'd be nice to see the park turn into a nice local park. A park down in Utica bought some of the old rides in the hopes of building a new Santa's Village, but as nothing happened, I wonder if some of the rides will find their way back to their original home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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