tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749619827774062085.post1148207869528879692..comments2023-10-22T05:21:02.324-04:00Comments on Down the Shore with Jen: The Golden NuggetJen A. Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03972184369212889517noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749619827774062085.post-31954370733461213052009-01-03T15:40:00.000-05:002009-01-03T15:40:00.000-05:00I saw that thing and I took a picture of it. I did...I saw that thing and I took a picture of it. I didn't even know what the heck that thing was until I looked online.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749619827774062085.post-20234467337805808322008-12-21T00:19:00.000-05:002008-12-21T00:19:00.000-05:00Thats so weird that they are demolishing it.I was ...Thats so weird that they are demolishing it.<BR/>I was there last Spring, trespassing and taking panoramic pictures on the pier when I was caught, of course my one of the maintenance men- anyway, after yelling at me he came back and apologized and then we started talking and he said that they were going to move the nugget and put it on the other pier, and that The Discovery Channel was going to come and tape the whole process for a TV show. :'(<BR/>He said they were just waiting for Discovery Channel or something. Booo... This makes me sad though because I guess the whole thing fell through... ugh...Leigh Wetterauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07062656833425183117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749619827774062085.post-57795686324939459032008-12-17T17:42:00.000-05:002008-12-17T17:42:00.000-05:00Hi Jen,Thanks for letting us know about the final ...Hi Jen,<BR/>Thanks for letting us know about the final fate of the once-wonderful GN. Here's my GN love letter that was posted on my blog, the Wildwood Rewind (www.sandandseamemories.blogspot.com)<BR/>Thanks for the opportunity to share. -- Michele<BR/>---------------------<BR/>The Golden Nugget<BR/><BR/>Hands down, Hunt's Pier and Hunt's Ocean Center were my favorite places in Wildwood when I was a kid. I loved the neat, clean and fun assortment of rides, shops, movie theater, rooftop mini golf course as well as the Polar Freeze refreshment stand.<BR/><BR/>The Hunt's Pier most of us remember opened on Memorial Day 1957, almost 15 years after a Christmas Day blaze destroyed the old Ocean Pier (also owned by William C. Hunt), taking a popular dance hall with it.<BR/><BR/>When Hunt's Pier opened that summer, it offered baby boomers like myself a few tame kiddie amusements, as well as the fabulous Flyer, small by today's standards, but still thrilling wooden coaster. Little, by little, the pier filled up with more elaborate rides –and rivaled anything at the first Disneyland-- like Jungle Land, Whacky Shack, Pirate Ship and Keystone Kops. Most of the newer, larger amusements were named “dark rides.” These attractions were either walk- and ride-through affairs featuring dark interiors stocked with special effects and figures that startled, surprised, and sometimes scared.<BR/><BR/>The first one of the modern Hunt's Pier era was the Golden Nugget, and my favorite ride next to The Flyer. Like the merry-go-rounds found on the Wildwood boardwalk, the GN was made by the craftsmen at the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.<BR/><BR/>The GN, stationed on a far corner of the pier with a sweeping ocean view, was a three-story combination roller coaster dark ride. It transported riders via a narrow steel track like a coaster and offered both audio and visual effects. It opened in summer 1960.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Passengers boarded at a train station with movie set-like props once latched into the two-seater cars immediately went through a dark tunnel that lead to the open sky semi-circular top of the ride.<BR/><BR/>From there, riders were plunged into mineshaft darkness, where old miners and skeletons would pop up unexpectedly, a giant waterfall that stopped before cars passed through, toppling barrels, an almost head-on collision with an oncoming mine car, a trip through a golden-lighted long spinning barrel and mineshaft entrances that partially collapsed as the cars passed under.<BR/><BR/>I rode the GN dozens of times through the mid-70s, and never tired of it corny special effects. The hurtling trips around tight corners and sudden dips more than made up for them.<BR/><BR/>Hunt's Pier was sold in 1985 and subsequently dismantled. The only original ride still standing is the Nugget. I'm not sure why it stayed, but it hasn't operated since the mid-90s.<BR/><BR/>Rumors over the year have the ride either moved to another pier on the Wildwood boardwalk, or have it refurbished by the Morey organization, the pier's current owner. It's also speculated that the GN is full of asbestos and may never reopen. Yet it still stands, the exterior looking much the same as it did in the '60s. So close, yet so far away.<BR/><BR/>The Golden Nugget ride, one of Hunt's Pier most popular and beloved attractions, stands vacant in its original location. It overlooks a go-kart ride on Morey's Pier.wildwoodwaitresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16136007340009106691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749619827774062085.post-76578573918166234752008-12-17T15:01:00.000-05:002008-12-17T15:01:00.000-05:00Bummer, Jen. I came to your site to see if there ...Bummer, Jen. I came to your site to see if there were any holiday shore happenings, and instead I find this. It's like a death in the family.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com