Lincoln Park Comet Fan Site

It might be a complete long shot, but I think it is well worth the effort to try and save the land of Lincoln Park.

I know nothing about preserving land,  but I am still willing to give my all for this. I’ve already e-mailed several different people and I’m working on letters to send out to state and town officials.  I’m prepared to do what is possible with help from others to save this land.

I’ve also started a petition and people are already signing.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/182/petition-for-the-preservation-of-lincoln-park-dartmouth-ma

While it may never be an amusement park again, it could be a nice recreational park with points of interest markers including history and photos of landmarks. It could be a place to picnic again and  remember the good ole days at Lincoln Park, while making new memories with our families and friends.

A wonderful quote that Pete found rings true to the effort to save the land: ”The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me.“  Abraham Lincoln

Corrie- (goodolecomet)

Sometime late this week the entire back portion of the Comet collapsed. This was the tallest remaining part of the Comet since the lift hill collapsed in January of 2005.  The destruction is massive. The entire section collapsed into itself. very little collapsed onto the parking lot.

Photos taken by me can be found here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/572091547zxspot

I know the person that bought that cowboy that was mounted to the park bench near the comet. All the children and parents used to have there pics taken with it. He has mentioned that he might sell it. But where would you sell such an artifact. It’s in good condition and he has a ball at his parties. he pulls it out and neighbors still sit near it.

We have Contacted Spinner Publications, and they have allowed us to Link into their galleries.

This is a wonderful collection of images tp the park throughout its history, Take a peek, you will be amazed.

I worked in the Penny Arcade at the Penny Pitch and in Fascination for several years in the summers or 1960-1965. Anyone else work there at that time?  I worked for Collins and Jay Hoffman. Is Jay around today that anyone knows about?

Bobby Lima

The Dartmouth Rotary Club is selling Lincoln Park glass ball ornaments with the Comet on them.  They are available at the Town Clerk’s office in Dartmouth on Slocum Rd. They are $10.00 each.  Each Ornament comes with a small card with history of the park on it. The LP ornament is second in a series of Landmark Ornaments that the DRC offers each year.

Well its August and There is still little in the way of updates to the demise or schedule.

We’ve heard that there have been truckloads of debris being moved into the back of the parking lot from somewhere in the front of the property. We assume this is just the effect of preparing the site for construction (first phase), removing old pavement and digging foundations, and the like.

Hopefully hte developers have had the foresight to consider preserving some of the older original growth that still exists (between the old kiddie land and the comet). There are several really large pines and maples back there, and are in excess of 200+ feet high and in very good health. Some of the older pictures show some of them and can be seen in the older Giant Coaster films (looks like that was pretty high for an old side friction coaster, it was below the treeline, but barely).

The word from the field is that the Comet is still standing and not too much has changed in the core of the park. We are still trying to get updated from the developers and our emails have been largely ignored. Supposedly l’m on their ‘mailing list’ and will get updates, alas silence and no new news.

We have also been trying to get a hold of the parks historian in the hope that we could get a hold of some historic pictures and film footage showing the park and its history. Some of the footage that is in the “Lincoln Park Remembered” video give us teases of what is suspected to be a much more detailed look at both the Giant Coaster and the Comet in action. We will keep trying it’s just to tempting to pass on these jewels from the past.

We have also been trying to get word back from Little-A-Merrik-A on the fate of the Comets infamous NAD cars, their state and what plans they have for them. Understandably word back has been slow coming as they are in full swing for their season, and are very busy. I missed the initial window to converse with them (initially just before they were opening for the season) so I’ll keep trying.

In the mean time we’ve been offered a couple of photo collections from a couple contributors (Thanks Ray and Mike ) that we’ll be weaving into the galleries and stories. A couple have already worked their way into our ‘anatomy’ section ….

Well thats about all we know now, and hope to keep pressing on in our quest for details, history artifacts, film and pictures …..

As always contributuins are welcome… keep checking in

-Pete-Team LPComet

Well summer is upon us, and the old park is again overrun with vegetation. This makes it all very hard to distinguish what is what, and also difficult to measure things with so many leaves in the way.

There was a recent article in “South Coast Today” about the impending doom of the remainder of the park, as well as progress on the redevelopment ( see http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080625/PUB02/806250419/-1/TOWN1502 )

So now it looks like September will usher in the first phase of building, and who knows what will happen with all the rest then. Perhaps we get another season (after the leaves have fallen) to continue documenting things, perhaps it will all just be leveled. Who knows, but I’m hoping that it is all hidden enough to stick around for one more season, and that the main construction is far enough away to let it be.

In the mean time we continue to paw through our notes, and keep updating things. Jarad has picked up on the station components of the Anatomy section, and so far it looks pretty good. I’ve been busy crunching numbers to make sense of the coasters dynamics, and will undoubtedly try weaving this information into the site where it all makes sense

We’ve continued our quest in search of information and data to make this “the” site to go to, and find out about Lincoln Park. We will also be following the transformation as the development begins, to a lesser extent.

This week I opened yet another major page,The Comet, Anatomy of a Coaster. This page and others in the works explore the intimate details of what made up the Comet, with lots of pictures and explanatory description. As we all know nothing is ever really finished, and this section is not exception, yet is fairly complete. We will be doing some additional anatomy pages detailing the mechanics (brakes, station, track wwitching and other things) in the near future.

I changed the wrecking ball countdown timer and pushed it out another month, as there appears to be little in terms of actual construction happening on the site. We’ve attempted to contact the developers for a more concrete (no pun intended) date on construction start, and the Open House they are planning. So far no word, but as you guessed, it will be announced here as soon as we know.

The picture collection continues to grow, and we have litterally hundreds of ‘current’ photos to go through. The important highlights have already been added to the galleries, and sorted in with their existing counterparts where appropriate. Most are in the Overgrown and forgotten gallery, and some are in the Chronological Diary, The Comets Last Days section (most are in the overgrown section though)

-Pete

Well I’ve been busy working on sections of the site in the last week or so. I’ve been busy collecting pictures, and finishing up content.

In case you were not aware the roof to the Comets station collapsed onto the platform, I wrote up an article, and posted a picture of its current condition (in the news section)

So what’s new:
A section called ‘About the Designer” which is an attempt to collect information about Vernon Keenan and fill in some of the blanks about this amazing coaster designer.

Another section with some pictures of the comet in it’s glory. This section is not finished, and there are several more pictures to come. But we have made special arrangements with the photographer, to use these amazing pictures (so don’t mind the shameless plugs for you to get your own). There is only one up at the moment, personally I call it “First Drop”.

Whats to come:
Just about any section on the site can be updated, as information becomes available. I believe the new Vernon Keenan article could stand a little more info, but that is all I was currently able to find, so stay tuned. There will be more photos from coasterpix, in the hayday sections. Finally I’m currently working on a ‘Technical Details” section for the comet, where I will be exploring all the physical aspects of how the coaster was constructed.

Thats it for the moment, so stay tuned, keep visiting, and explore what we’ve put together