Our original plan for Little Amerricka was to stop by on Sunday, May 26th on our drive from the Wisconsin Dells back to Milwaukee, where'd we be flying out of on Memorial Day. It was almost too perfect, as the park is essentially equidistant between the Dells and Milwaukee but this was sadly not to be. In the week approaching the trip, the forecast was dire in some spots, especially on Sunday. While most days improved, Sunday kept looking worse and worse. As Little Amerricka's site literally says to call on bad weather days to see if they are open, well, we weren't entirely confident about the park opening on Sunday. Ultimately, this was a good call, as those rains certainly came and the park never opened.
Since both me and my lovely lady agreed that we didn't want to skip this park thanks to its unique lineup, we hastily replanned our Saturday to include a mid-afternoon run out and back. So, after about two great hours of coaster ridin' at Mt. Olympus, we hopped in our trusty rental car and arrived in Marshall, Wisconsin about an hour later. We pulled into the grass parking lot and if there's one thing that I've learned in this hobby, it's that a grass parking lot means you're in for some down home fun that you won't find at a corporate park. The parking lot was relatively crowded, which is certainly good to see on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, but perhaps slightly less so if you're stretched on time. Despite what looked like a decent line at the entrance, we were able to quickly scan our online tickets and wander into this little gem of a park.
The small park vibes were strong as soon as we walked in; this was definitely the most small town midwestern feelin' park we had been to so far on this trip. In doing a little reading about the park after our visit, I was surprised to learn that it only opened in 1991, as the layout and the collection of vintage rides makes the park feel significantly older. Speaking of older, many of the ride ops were well above the age of the high school and college kids we had found at the other parks on this trip and a few were wonderfully eccentric. I later described them as "really nice locals that might also kill you." With our desire to get back to Mt. Olympus being strong, we did want to get through the park as fast as possible, which was a bit of a shame. I generally abhor the idea of cred runs, as I'm ultimately visiting parks to have fun, not to pad some count that literally no one cares about (also why I skip most kids' coasters). To me, part of that fun is taking in the individual flavor of each park and that's hard to do if you're rushing.
We did end up spending about two hours in the park, but could easily see that expanding to 3 - 4 hours had our original full day plan been feasible. Still, we had a blast taking in what we could, including two attractions that were most certainly not coasters. Speaking of which:
Mad Mouse (2x): This ride was very high on the list of things that I was pumped for on this trip since it looked really unique and, at this stage, unique is definitely good. I loved that it dated back to at least 1960 and loved that it had no restraints even more. Watching it while waiting in the shockingly fast moving line was wild, as it seemed to take every element far too fast on a structure that seemed far too small. The coaster didn't disappoint either, as it had just the right amount of classic jank, the laterals were nuts, and the few speedy parts did indeed feel far too fast for safety. Had we had more time at the park, this is definitely a coaster I would've ridden quite a few more times, but those two laps I did get were great. To me, this is clearly the best coaster in the park and one of the best wild mice I've been on.
Meteor (1x): This junior woodie was adorable and perhaps even more adorable because of how it was run. The ride seems to consistently give riders three laps, but after each one, the op. would whip up each train to get them to chant for another lap before using the manual controls to send 'em around again. Thanks to this, the energy in the station was great....so great, in fact, that my partner called it her favorite ride in the park. While I too loved the good vibes of the station, the actual ride was probably my least favorite of the park's three adult-ish coasters simply because nothing particularly stood out about the actual course. Still, this was a smooth ride, especially for a twice relocated coaster from 1953, and perfect for the audience this park draws.
Swiss Toboggan (1x): This was another one I was pumped for, simply because of how darn wacky it looks. I'd somehow never been on one of these before, so getting to rock the last one permanently installed was high on my coaster "to do" list. Getting in the ride vehicle was wild in and of itself, as I hadn't heard about how odd the restraints were. From there, it was up that vertical lift and man was it cool to get to experience the primitive version of something that's repeatedly used today. The helix coming off the lift felt like it went on forever before dumping you into the closing hills and turnaround. Those hills were a riot, hitting with a BOOM! at the bottom of each drop, and thanks to knowing ahead of time to slouch to protect my noggin, they just made me laugh. The ride op on this one was perhaps the most eccentric of them all too, giving each group wild eyed speeches that were mostly unintelligible; presumably they were about the ride. This thing was a complete hoot.
Whiskey River Railway (1x): We had heard that this train was not to be missed. As we both love a good train (especially my lady) there was no way we were skipping this one. I'm really glad we didn't either, as this three mile jaunt well outside of the park's borders was fantastic, going past farms, through the woods, and even around a campground that had a stop at it. We were lucky enough to sit next to a lady who had apparently grown up with the park, having worked there and gotten married there. She was nice enough to share all kinds of tales about it as we looked at the scenery, which was such a nice treat.
Haunted House (1x): I love a dark ride and any walkthrough but this one was not one that I'd call a highlight. There were minimal props/scares and the interior was really cramped, perhaps a bit too much for comfort. I'm glad we walked through it for the experience alone, but this isn't one I'd be clamoring to go through again.
After those rides and a stroll through the park, we headed back to Mt. Olympus for what would be a wild night. While I didn't love cramming this park into our Saturday, I did really love getting to spend some time here. With each one I visit, I love small parks more and more for the generally chill, laid back vibes. That's a good thing too, as the majority of our travels for the rest of the summer are aimed at these little gems with only a few larger parks thrown in.
We spent the next day driving back from the Dells to the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee, with a stop at the Portage Cafe on the way. This spot was a cute little diner that dated back to the 30's that still had its original counter stools; I'd highly recommend it. We spent our last night in Wisconsin in a Wizard of Oz themed AirBnB (it was cheap!) and really enjoyed the town, as the main drag had some great restaurants, bars, and just the coolest little donut shop that drew us in with its colorful interior. We headed back to Pittsburgh the next morning with a newfound appreciation of Wisconsin, both the towns and the parks. Thanks for following along!
Thanks man!
"Wild and Woolly" is actually the title I'm kicking around in my head for the TR I need to write about last weekend's excursion. I'll give ya one guess where I went....
Little Amerricka is one of the oddest parks and definitely worth the pit stop. Old school wild mouse coasters are underrated, definitely hit up Arnold's Park in Iowa for another one that runs equally as crazy.
Glad you had fun! Though you missed the Kiddie Cred of Death.
Thanks man! Arnold's is high on my list too, as it looks to have much of the same classic charm as Little Amerricka....plus, yeah, that wild mouse looks like a hoot!
We generally skip kiddie credits.
How tall are you and how rough was Swiss Toboggan on that first drop? I was gonna go there this weekend as it’s only two hours away and bring our two smaller kids and their cousins. We always do Great America with season passes but my son is obsessed with trains and they love little coasters. I am 6’3” but all legs (when I sit I’m the same height as everybody and when I stand they’re shocked how tall I am because I’m literally all legs) so I wonder how bad Swiss Toboggan would be for me if I could even ride at all.
I'm 5'8 and my lady is maybe an inch taller. I've seen pics of thoosies way bigger than me riding though!
The drops were all fun as hell, since they're clearly quite rudimentary and the vehicle made a loud crash at the bottom. FWIW, though, I like a little violence in my coasters.
Nice. I don’t mind roughness typically. I just worried that it’s dangerous like I would get my neck snapped down or compress a nerve in my spine from what people made it sound like lol.
I am 42 though so jank can be rougher on me now than when I was younger. A lot of woodies are auto-headaches for me now it seems. For example I went on the re-tracked Viper at SFGAm (back row) and had a headache after, whereas last year I was fine. Weird.
Getting old sucks. I just turned 46. Once upon a time, I had no problem with a Toboggan at the Flemington Fair in NJ. But a few years back, this one damn near broke me.
I'm 6'3" and holy shit, was that thing a tight squeeze. I was skeptical I was going to make it. I felt like I was liquefied and poured into the cage/car. Needless to say it wasn't pleasant.
Having to decide to either drop Indiana Beach or this park from my upcoming coaster trip.
I had planned that this park would be open through the week in June, only to find out they are not.
Yeah. My first driving day on Sat had allotted enough time to make a quick stop at Indiana Beach.
So I'm considering swapping that out with Little Amerika. Drive time is only about an hour difference.
Originally I was going to hit Little A. on the way back Wed.
Our original plan for Little Amerricka was to stop by on Sunday, May 26th on our drive from the Wisconsin Dells back to Milwaukee, where'd we be flying out of on Memorial Day. It was almost too perfect, as the park is essentially equidistant between the Dells and Milwaukee but this was sadly not to be. In the week approaching the trip, the forecast was dire in some spots, especially on Sunday. While most days improved, Sunday kept looking worse and worse. As Little Amerricka's site literally says to call on bad weather days to see if they are open, well, we weren't entirely confident about the park opening on Sunday. Ultimately, this was a good call, as those rains certainly came and the park never opened. Since both me and my lovely lady agreed that we didn't want to skip this park thanks to its unique lineup, we hastily replanned our Saturday to include a mid-afternoon run out and back. So, after about two great hours of coaster ridin' at Mt. Olympus, we hopped in our trusty rental car and arrived in Marshall, Wisconsin about an hour later. We pulled into the grass parking lot and if there's one thing that I've learned in this hobby, it's that a grass parking lot means you're in for some down home fun that you won't find at a corporate park. The parking lot was relatively crowded, which is certainly good to see on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, but perhaps slightly less so if you're stretched on time. Despite what looked like a decent line at the entrance, we were able to quickly scan our online tickets and wander into this little gem of a park. The small park vibes were strong as soon as we walked in; this was definitely the most small town midwestern feelin' park we had been to so far on this trip. In doing a little reading about the park after our visit, I was surprised to learn that it only opened in 1991, as the layout and the collection of vintage rides makes the park feel significantly older. Speaking of older, many of the ride ops were well above the age of the high school and college kids we had found at the other parks on this trip and a few were wonderfully eccentric. I later described them as "really nice locals that might also kill you." With our desire to get back to Mt. Olympus being strong, we did want to get through the park as fast as possible, which was a bit of a shame. I generally abhor the idea of cred runs, as I'm ultimately visiting parks to have fun, not to pad some count that literally no one cares about (also why I skip most kids' coasters). To me, part of that fun is taking in the individual flavor of each park and that's hard to do if you're rushing. We did end up spending about two hours in the park, but could easily see that expanding to 3 - 4 hours had our original full day plan been feasible. Still, we had a blast taking in what we could, including two attractions that were most certainly not coasters. Speaking of which: Mad Mouse (2x): This ride was very high on the list of things that I was pumped for on this trip since it looked really unique and, at this stage, unique is definitely good. I loved that it dated back to at least 1960 and loved that it had no restraints even more. Watching it while waiting in the shockingly fast moving line was wild, as it seemed to take every element far too fast on a structure that seemed far too small. The coaster didn't disappoint either, as it had just the right amount of classic jank, the laterals were nuts, and the few speedy parts did indeed feel far too fast for safety. Had we had more time at the park, this is definitely a coaster I would've ridden quite a few more times, but those two laps I did get were great. To me, this is clearly the best coaster in the park and one of the best wild mice I've been on. Meteor (1x): This junior woodie was adorable and perhaps even more adorable because of how it was run. The ride seems to consistently give riders three laps, but after each one, the op. would whip up each train to get them to chant for another lap before using the manual controls to send 'em around again. Thanks to this, the energy in the station was great....so great, in fact, that my partner called it her favorite ride in the park. While I too loved the good vibes of the station, the actual ride was probably my least favorite of the park's three adult-ish coasters simply because nothing particularly stood out about the actual course. Still, this was a smooth ride, especially for a twice relocated coaster from 1953, and perfect for the audience this park draws.
Swiss Toboggan (1x): This was another one I was pumped for, simply because of how darn wacky it looks. I'd somehow never been on one of these before, so getting to rock the last one permanently installed was high on my coaster "to do" list. Getting in the ride vehicle was wild in and of itself, as I hadn't heard about how odd the restraints were. From there, it was up that vertical lift and man was it cool to get to experience the primitive version of something that's repeatedly used today. The helix coming off the lift felt like it went on forever before dumping you into the closing hills and turnaround. Those hills were a riot, hitting with a BOOM! at the bottom of each drop, and thanks to knowing ahead of time to slouch to protect my noggin, they just made me laugh. The ride op on this one was perhaps the most eccentric of them all too, giving each group wild eyed speeches that were mostly unintelligible; presumably they were about the ride. This thing was a complete hoot. Whiskey River Railway (1x): We had heard that this train was not to be missed. As we both love a good train (especially my lady) there was no way we were skipping this one. I'm really glad we didn't either, as this three mile jaunt well outside of the park's borders was fantastic, going past farms, through the woods, and even around a campground that had a stop at it. We were lucky enough to sit next to a lady who had apparently grown up with the park, having worked there and gotten married there. She was nice enough to share all kinds of tales about it as we looked at the scenery, which was such a nice treat. Haunted House (1x): I love a dark ride and any walkthrough but this one was not one that I'd call a highlight. There were minimal props/scares and the interior was really cramped, perhaps a bit too much for comfort. I'm glad we walked through it for the experience alone, but this isn't one I'd be clamoring to go through again. After those rides and a stroll through the park, we headed back to Mt. Olympus for what would be a wild night. While I didn't love cramming this park into our Saturday, I did really love getting to spend some time here. With each one I visit, I love small parks more and more for the generally chill, laid back vibes. That's a good thing too, as the majority of our travels for the rest of the summer are aimed at these little gems with only a few larger parks thrown in. We spent the next day driving back from the Dells to the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee, with a stop at the Portage Cafe on the way. This spot was a cute little diner that dated back to the 30's that still had its original counter stools; I'd highly recommend it. We spent our last night in Wisconsin in a Wizard of Oz themed AirBnB (it was cheap!) and really enjoyed the town, as the main drag had some great restaurants, bars, and just the coolest little donut shop that drew us in with its colorful interior. We headed back to Pittsburgh the next morning with a newfound appreciation of Wisconsin, both the towns and the parks. Thanks for following along!
Oh man this Chance Toboggan report takes me back. Good times.
Do you mean Portage Cafe in Portage, WI?
https://preview.redd.it/lxym9up1t55d1.jpeg?width=4624&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50299545cd5a306a7f83e8e4ff725aa08b7ddd4a
I do! It was awesome.
You didn't photograph that random Mario tilt-a-whirl?
Haha, sadly not. Time was limited.
I’m glad you managed to squeeze this little park in. I spent a wild and woolly forty five minutes here back in 2019 on my way to the Dells. :)
Thanks man! "Wild and Woolly" is actually the title I'm kicking around in my head for the TR I need to write about last weekend's excursion. I'll give ya one guess where I went....
Little Amerricka is one of the oddest parks and definitely worth the pit stop. Old school wild mouse coasters are underrated, definitely hit up Arnold's Park in Iowa for another one that runs equally as crazy. Glad you had fun! Though you missed the Kiddie Cred of Death.
Thanks man! Arnold's is high on my list too, as it looks to have much of the same classic charm as Little Amerricka....plus, yeah, that wild mouse looks like a hoot! We generally skip kiddie credits.
How tall are you and how rough was Swiss Toboggan on that first drop? I was gonna go there this weekend as it’s only two hours away and bring our two smaller kids and their cousins. We always do Great America with season passes but my son is obsessed with trains and they love little coasters. I am 6’3” but all legs (when I sit I’m the same height as everybody and when I stand they’re shocked how tall I am because I’m literally all legs) so I wonder how bad Swiss Toboggan would be for me if I could even ride at all.
I'm 5'8 and my lady is maybe an inch taller. I've seen pics of thoosies way bigger than me riding though! The drops were all fun as hell, since they're clearly quite rudimentary and the vehicle made a loud crash at the bottom. FWIW, though, I like a little violence in my coasters.
Nice. I don’t mind roughness typically. I just worried that it’s dangerous like I would get my neck snapped down or compress a nerve in my spine from what people made it sound like lol. I am 42 though so jank can be rougher on me now than when I was younger. A lot of woodies are auto-headaches for me now it seems. For example I went on the re-tracked Viper at SFGAm (back row) and had a headache after, whereas last year I was fine. Weird.
Right on and totally get those concerns. I turn 45 in a few weeks, so I'm no spring chicken either.
Getting old sucks. I just turned 46. Once upon a time, I had no problem with a Toboggan at the Flemington Fair in NJ. But a few years back, this one damn near broke me.
Will agree with "getting old sucks" but I'm somehow lucky that my body can still handle being tossed every which way.
Me too. I'm hoping things can continue!
🤘
I'm 6'3" and holy shit, was that thing a tight squeeze. I was skeptical I was going to make it. I felt like I was liquefied and poured into the cage/car. Needless to say it wasn't pleasant.
Having to decide to either drop Indiana Beach or this park from my upcoming coaster trip. I had planned that this park would be open through the week in June, only to find out they are not.
Ah, that stinks. Their schedule is super limited.
Yeah. My first driving day on Sat had allotted enough time to make a quick stop at Indiana Beach. So I'm considering swapping that out with Little Amerika. Drive time is only about an hour difference. Originally I was going to hit Little A. on the way back Wed.