Rabbit Holes

Written by Kelly Feathers, DLNHC Intern

My name is Kelly Feathers. I’m in the home stretch of a Master of Library and Informational Science degree at PennWest University (formerly Clarion University) with a concentration in archiving and local history. This summer, the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (DLNHC) team welcomed me in for some field experience hours in the National Canal Museum archives, and I’m excited to be the National Canal Musuem guest blogger for July. 

Last month, Facilities & Infrastructure Manager Tim wrote about living for “the interruptions” – those moments in which we hit the pause button to address an immediate need and take satisfaction in being part of the solution to a problem.   

Me?  

I live for the rabbit holes.  

When I find something that really piques my interest as a researcher and historian, I can disappear down a research rabbit hole for hours. Even days. Only one topic has kept me hopping from rabbit hole to rabbit hole for years, though: Bushkill Park. I worked there as a teenager in the mid 1990s, earning some spending money getting kids down the funhouse slide and onto kiddie rides. They were great summers – the smell of ozone as the bumper car poles skimmed the ceiling, the constant hum of the turning wooden barrel in the funhouse with the carousel organ as a backdrop… the constant storytelling of “back in my day, this place had….” between generations of children and those reliving their childhoods. We had family reunions there, and my own great grandparents danced and skated in the original pavilion before my great grandfather left to fight in World War I France. I’ve always felt connected to Bushkill, and my fascination for the history of the park has never diminished. 

Bushkill Park opened in 1902 at what was then the end of the Northampton Traction Company’s trolley line. At the start, trolleys were used mainly for commuting to work. When the trolley companies wanted to expand their customer base, they began opening parks at the ends of their lines. They began as picnic grounds, adding roller skating, dancing, petting zoos, and eventually amusement rides. For a nickel per passenger, a family could take a picnic basket and spend a day of leisure in the countryside.  

In the 1930s, a young entrepreneur by the name of Tom Long leased Bushkill Park from NTC (He would purchase the park outright by 1939). With him came a handsome hand-carved wooden 1903 carousel with 50 animals and two chariots– a three-row jumping menagerie of zebras, hares, horses, camels, giraffes, a lion, a tiger… it even had a pair of mules.  Daniel and Alfred Muller of Philadelphia carved the original animals, and the Lusse Brothers (whose company would later build the bone-rattling AutoSkooter bumper cars we remember so fondly) supplied the mechanisms, as they’d done for Long Carousels 1-7. Unlike its other Long predecessors, #8 ran on gasoline before being converted to electricity. 

Why bring up the Bushkill Park carousel? Follow me down the rabbit hole…. 

Many people know that the Bushkill Park carousel, also known as Long Carousel #8, turned at Island Park first.  

Tom Long had started in the amusement business young, as a ring boy on a family carousel in Fairmont Park in Philadelphia. After having been raised in the business by his grandfather, father, and uncles, Tom Long wanted to venture out on his own as a concessionaire. After managing the family’s concessions and Burlington Island Park as a whole, Tom purchased Long #8 from his grandfather for $3,500 and headed north to Island Park in Easton.   

I knew Island Park closed in 1919… but when did Tom Long get there? After chasing leads through a handful of different rabbit holes, I finally found this: 

[ The Allentown Morning Call, Saturday, May 4, 1912] 

On April 25, 1912, among reports of recoveries of the bodies of Titanic victims, the Bristol Daily Courier printed an article entitled “First Boat of Season: It Arrived Here Monday with Merry Go Round as Its Cargo”.  It reads: “Thomas V. Long, formerly manager of Burlington Island Park, is moving his large carroussel [sic] to Easton, PA, by way of canal. The merry-go-round was loaded yesterday.” 

Four days after embarking on the trip, the Easton Free Press reported its arrival: “The first canal boat of the season to pass through the Delaware Division Canal from Bristol to Easton, came up on Monday. Its cargo consisted of a carrousal [sic] which will be erected at Island Park by the Easton Amusement Company. The carrousel [sic] was shipped from Burlington, NJ and will be placed in position on the island at once.” The Allentown Morning Call printed an article to the same effect a few days later. 

What a sight it must have been, with a pair of mules hauling a boat full of giant wooden animals, brass poles, and platforms up the canal into Easton. I’ve often tried to picture the scene in my head. Were the animals all crated? My mind’s eye sees something out of Noah’s ark – that one might peer into a window and catch a glimpse of wooden zebras and giraffes, lined up in threes, followed by a herd of wild-eyed horses.  

Logistically, how did they do it? The center of the carousel alone is colossal. How on earth did they manage to get it and the pieces of the ride platform on and off the canal boat? Were the platform sections rolled up ramps on poles to ease the burden and reduce friction? How many people and simple machines did it take to get it in and out? Did they build a special ramp so no one ended up in the canal while trying to load?  

I keep an eye out for possible answers as I assist with cataloging and inventory. I know the answer is here in the archives somewhere… I’ll find it someday. For now, I’m back to my inventory of blueprints.  

Sometimes, the rabbit hole just has to wait.