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Post by patorjk on Aug 27, 2022 13:10:41 GMT -5
As a kid I loved riding the Gold Nugget at Western Playland. Western Playland is an amusement park located in Sunland Park, New Mexico. Recently I rode a rather crappy haunted house ride at the Maryland State Fair and it got me wondering if I was looking at my childhood with rose tinted glasses or if the Gold Nugget really was a gem of a ride. I went online looking for info on the Gold Nugget and there's almost none - though my search did bring me to this website where I saw that another Gold Nugget ride had been built in Roseland Park and learned a little bit about it's creator, Bill Tracy (thank you to the admins for maintaining this site!). Just based on the outside photo I know this is the same ride. The one in Western Playland opened in 1971 and burned down in 1994, injuring several people in the process. I was always confused as to why they didn't re-build the Gold Nugget, but now I think that may have been because Bill's old company was no longer producing the ride (since he died in the 70's). I can't find any info on the "Fantasies and Dreams" company which supposedly took over though, so I can't verify this. A local radio station has written twice about the ride in recent times, so I know I'm not the only one who misses it. If I can find any old photos of it I'll post them here.
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