Kiddieland's Little Dipper Finds A New Home
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 21, 2010 2:20PM
The closing of local amusement park Kiddieland and the selling off of its rides and attractions had a lot of local fun-seekers down. But for those still itching for a blast from the past, there's hope. The Little Dipper, the most popular ride had Kiddieland, has been refurbished and is going up at Six Flags Great America. The park spent $36,000 buying the ride and has spent more money refurbishing it. According to ABC 7, only 10 percent of the original wood from the ride was kept. But the original cars have been spiffed up and Six Flags has done their best to recreate the Little Dipper as authentically as possible, considering they had no blueprints. Gary Pohlman, director of construction, said, "We brought our people down there along with an engineering firm to basically shoot everything in place and do it 'As Built' of the ride there in Melrose Park. That gave us something to work off of for resetting it back up here." The ride should be ready to roll by Memorial Day.