Sunday, October 17, 2010

Lakemont Park Altoona, PA - The Haunted Roller Coaster

Altoona Pennsylvania is home to Lakemont Park.  It has been known as various names over the years, but it is one of the oldest amusement parks in the United States constructed in 1894.  It is also home to the oldest roller coaster in the world.  The roller coaster is called Leap-the-Dips and was built in 1902 and is the oldest wooden roller coaster of it's type.



At one point in the roller coaster's history, a maintenance worker was working on one of the tracks when he was struck and killed by the coaster during a test run.



Over the years there have been stories of folks riding the roller coaster and spotting a man working on the tracks during their ride.  When the ride ends and they report the close proximity of the man on the tracks, making sure the ride operator knew the worker was there, they learn that there was no maintenance worker working on the coaster at that time.  What they have seen is the ghost of the dead maintenance man killed long ago.




Posted by JackMc at 9:05 PM
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2 comments:

  1. baroness radonJanuary 4, 2013 at 9:04 PM

    Thanks for this post; I rode "Leap the Dips" many times as a child at Lakemont. Haven't been back to the park for decades. I thought it had been demolished, (like the merry-go-round) but glad to see it lives on, as does, apparently, its maintenance man. I never saw that ghost, but I think I have heard of it. I do have a nice art print of the roller coaster, though.

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  2. AnonymousMay 21, 2013 at 1:46 PM

    Years later on another roller coasters
    man lost his leg ..

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