September 26 2003,

Jon here! I have a lot of exciting pictures of construction progress today! Rivers of America is just about done, although the shops and restaurants will not officially be open till next may. Here are some photos of construction as of September 19:





Here are some shots of Rivers of America as of today (September 26, 2003). As you can see construction came along quite quickly!:







This snapshot of Rivers of America has to be my favorite!:


I really like the "vintage" feel that this area has. Mr. Harrington had to hire a special construction company to build these buildings though. He even made sure all the wood, paint, windows, curtain fabric etc. were all made with materials that would have been available to people in the Midwest during the mid to late 19th century. What special attention to the details! I bet the guests will be wowed when this section opens next year. I don't think I was supposed to know this, but I'm going to share it with you anyways; the estimated cost of building Rivers of America was over $4.6 million!!!! That's some serious dough! I have know clue where Mr. Harrington came up with funding for Rivers of America. American West though is MUCH larger than the Rivers of America section and contains numerous upcoming "E ticket" attractions, imagine how much the price tag is going to be on that project! Talking about American west I still need to show you the awesome pictures that were leaked by a fellow co-worker of mine!

This building on Pioneer Riverfront was finished first, it is supposed to be a restaurant named; "Trapper Dan's":


Here is a photo of the restaurant at night:



This snapshot was taken September 19th as well. As you can see the bucking bull ride "Buffalo Bill's Buckin Bison" has been put in place and themeing is starting to take place:


"Buffalo Bill's Buckin Bison" as of today(September 26th 2003):


These are snapshots of construction on the second building on Pioneer Riverfront, Crawfish Island Cafe:
(as of September 19th)




And here are snapshots of it as of today(September 26th 2003):







The outdoor eating area:






This building's name or purpose has not yet been released. The name will be released later when the construction further progresses. As you can see, it is still themed very similar to the other two buildings:





This is a picture of "Ross's Rotor Ride" getting installed yesterday. Mr. Harrington was very mad when it arrived last week with the wrong paint color so he sent it back to the manufacturer to re paint it. Because of this it put the construction schedule back 8 days. I still think American West will be able to have the partial opening of the section next year. Mr. Harrington was just being stubborn, I think the old colors looked fine (don't tell him I said that or else I might lose my job!). Anyway, here's the photo of the ride getting installed after it got the new paint coat:



Well, that about wraps it up for this time! Mr. Harrington needs me to inspect "Ross's Rotor Ride" so he can give it it's first test! Hopefully he doesn't throw up!

See you in the gardens!
Jon

(Jun 11, 2013, 10:58 AM)FlightToAtlantis Wrote: Totally excellent work!!!! Good use of scenery and plenty of it. Very realistic, too.

I also have never used the flying routes camera - I really should look into that ..... And with my latest park (Marina Towers Park and Spa Resort)being the first one with contoured landscaping I've had to completely re-learn how to place paths that actually join from tile to tile.

(Jun 10, 2013, 08:27 PM)DorneyPark5 Wrote: wow looks so good! i really like the pier or boardwalk with the eateries

September 28 2003

Hi! It's Jon again. Today marked the last weekend of September at Harrington's Americana Gardens. We only have two weekends left to the season!! (except for the Christmas Festival in December) We officially close up for the season on October 12th. Mr. Harrington and the board of directors have approved a finale fireworks spectacular for the evening of Sunday October 12th to celebrate the first (partial) season of Harrington's Americana Gardens. Well, I have some pictures to show you today, although not nearly as much as last time.

The third building on Pioneer Riverfront was just finished!! The name and purpose of the building was finally released as well; Crawfish Island Gift Shop. That pretty much tells its purpose. Mr. Harrington said in another press conference yesterday that the shop will feature hundreds of different items from faux coonskin caps, to authentic native american leather moccasins, to a WIDE selection of Harrington's Americana Gardens apparel. Here are some pictures:







A fourth building was quite recently started and finished; Sassy Sadie's. this is supposed to be a family-style country buffet. The very famous television Chef, Georgie Karrmichael from Tennessee has been hired to work at this restaurant. All of Stony Mills is ecstatic with such a celebrity coming here. I can't imagine how much Mr. Harrington had to pay him to come and work here. Chef Karrmichael already has been mentioning how much he would like to continue his extremely popular cooking show, but move the studio here to Americana Gardens!! Can you imagine that!!?? "Broadcasting live from Harrington's Americana Gardens in Stony Mills West Virginia to the whole entire world!!!" That would be HUGE for advertising!!! I am getting terribly off track again!!! Anyway here is a picture of Sassy Sadie's:



Pioneer Riverfront just glows so amazingly at night. Too bad it won't be open to the public until next year. Anyway, I just had to share these two photos!:

The new restaurant Sassy Sadie's:


And a general snapshot of Pioneer Riverfront at night:



And of course an Aerial view of the park at night:



I have to go for today, but I wanted to share one more picture before I left.

Here is a closer look at the plaque at "C.M. Hugson Memorial Garden":



See you in the Gardens,
Jon

October 12 2003

Jon here once again! A lot has happened at the gardens in the past two weeks when I last shared an update with you! Today was the last day of the season. We experienced a larger crowd today than we have ever encountered before! At the park's closing tonight we counted up all the admissions for the day and we came to over 2,500! Obviously, still not much compared to a typical day at Disneyland, but that still is an awfully large number, more than twice than our opening day! Everybody who came to the gardens today received a free park ticket for the 2004 season opening day! I have several photos to show you today from our last day of the season:

The trees finally turned color!:


The family playground was very busy today:



So was our main gift shop:





Some happy park guests go for a whirl on "The Zipper":



I got to get on the very last ride of the season on both the bumber cars and "The Tower"!:



The view from "The Tower" is magnificent at night!!:


I have some good news and some bad news today. To start off, I might as well tell you the bad news; Calamity Canyon Mine Coaster and the unnamed family coaster, both to be installed in the American West section of the park, have been indefinitely postponed!! Here is a news article from the Stony Mills Journal about it and most of the other recent news for the gardens:

(Italics are the newspaper article)
Saturday, October 11, 2003
On Friday the well known Mr. Harrington, CEO of Harrington's Americana Gardens, as well as other publicity staff released some extremely disappointing news about the park's ongoing expansion project. They reported that due to insufficient sponsor funding and recent manufacturer lawsuits because of inferior products, they have decided to abandon both roller coaster projects. The larger of the two roller coasters was to cost an upward of a shocking $10,000,000.00! Almost uncanny why they didn't achieve their funding goals. It appears as if "American Adventure", the park's first roller coaster, will stay their only roller coaster for at least several years. Mr. Harrington said in the press conference, that if these coasters ever get built it will be a long, long time before we see any construction. He predicted that if the coasters ever get built that the earliest it could happen, would be at least 2012-2013, almost a decade into the future. Although this news is certainly disheartening, an unplanned and unreleased new log-flume ride is currently under construction at the park.


Construction begins on Harrington's Americana Gardens newest upcoming attraction "Desperado River Ride" on October 1st.

Where the unnamed family coaster was to be initially placed is now home to the park's latest construction project; "Desperado River Ride" Construction started about a week and a half ago. This is a quote from Mr. Harrington describing the new attraction: "When we finally realized that both of the coasters are presently impossible, we knew we still had to come up with an "E-ticket" attraction for American West. Splash n' Water Rides LLC actually came to us and advertised their advanced ride systems. Honestly we can say we were very intrigued at this possibility. With the help of Splash n' Water Rides LLC's knowledgeable team of designers and architects and our own construction and development crew we created a thrilling and well themed ride which will be sure to draw publicity and ultimately large crowds." Mr. Harrington went on to say that this new attraction is progressing at an extremely rapid pace and should be open to crowds mid-season next year. The total estimated price for this project is $2.5 million, a mere fourth of what Calamity Canyon was expected to cost.

Reporter Sam Dinklemann

It is very sad to learn that both planned coasters are not going to be built. But it is exciting that they are building a new flume ride. My co-workers and I have been able to get a few snapshots of the progress of the ride construction. These first two are from October 5th (1 week ago):



Of course an aerial photo!:


For this picture I had to sneak into the construction zone where I was not technically supposed to be. It is a photo of a tunnel after the ride's first drop:



A popular rumor spreading around Stony Mills is that Harrington's Americana Gardens is working on building two additional parks!! Of course, this could be simply a rumor and nothing has been confirmed or denied as of yet. Imagine though, two additional parks!!! That would be amazing!! It is unknown whether these potential parks would be still in Stony Mills, West Virginia or whether they would be located in different areas of the country. But, since Calamity Canyon and the other roller coaster were cancelled because of insufficient funding, I find it highly unlikely that Mr. Harrington would be possibly thinking about building not one but two additional amusement parks.

Here is one last photo to share with you today. The Grand Finale firework display for the last day of the season!:

Although the park does not open again until next may, I will continue to post updates on the park's construction progress and news.

See you in the gardens, next year!!!
Jon