Queen Anne Kiddieland 1965, Bloomington MN
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- During the 1950s and ’60s, many Twin Cities children celebrated their birthdays with a party at Queen Anne Kiddieland, a wonderland of ponies, amusement rides and the Rock Island Rocket, a miniature 1/6 scale replica of a real train.
The park also provided summer entertainment, before modern amusement parks like Valleyfair and Nickolodeon Universe opened. Kiddieland’s rides were smaller, but even teens hung out there to flirt and find dates from neighboring towns.
Visitors recall that Queen Anne Kiddieland seemed to be in the middle of nowhere at the southeast corner of what is now the intersection of highways 494 and 100. But then, that land was in “the country.” In fact, the ponies came from Thomas’s 80-acre farm located a few miles away, at 78th Street and France Avenue in Bloomington, where he raised dairy cattle and hay.
By the end of the 1960s, however, the 494 strip transformed thanks to crowds at the new Metropolitan Stadium, freeway construction and the population boom. An office tower now stands at the Queen Anne Kiddieland site, but those who want to relive their past can still ride on the Rock Island Rocket, which is now housed at the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul.
I was ten in 1965, but went there when I was younger for several birthday parties, and had a wonderful time. Looking at it now , though, it looks a bit sad. I was really struck by the little girls all wearing head scarves. I did too! I had a lot of them. It's funny the things that go in and out of style. Thanks for the video!
My sister and I thought this was more exciting back then than Disney World is now.
Thank you for the wonderful memories.
At :55. That was called the neck breaker. Grew up at 83rd and Morris. Late 70's to mid 80's. Thanks for the memories!
as a kid I remember riding on the back of my dads dirtbike thru many of those fields before construction took over.
Did the same thing with friends in the 60's.
Same here in the late 60's, on regular bikes, sometimes getting lost in those fields!
Southgate Office Plaza was built on that site.
Bloomington, mn
Thanks for posting this. I'm an Edina kid from back then. Seems like by 1965 it had downsized or something compared to the 50s. My last memory is just a small number of rides and grass poking through the gravel. It looked pretty nice in the couple of 50s videos that are posted here. Thanks for preserving this memory for us.
The ads on TV made it seem like some sort of local Disneyland. Then one day we drove past it, and I thought, "That's it?"
No kidding, my old back yard on 81st by wells Fargo
BILL COLLINS