So, we came across this negative strip while doing our semi-annual housecleaning, and assumed it was from the TSG archives:
However, upon closer inspection, the scenes depicted were of an unfamiliar locale. One of them (#8 on the strip) is obviously a mushroom-themed ride of some sort, but not one that we remembered.
The pics are from a carnival or amusement park, but not one that we've ever been to. What the heck?
We must have seen the strip lying around somewhere on a road trip and picked it up as a random found-object-type souvenir. After a little digging, we've think we came up with the place where the photos were taken: Bell's Amusement Park, formerly of Tulsa, OK.
This is the image that provided the main clue:
In the background, the sign says "Phantasmagoria", so searching for that came up with this image on Pinterest:
Looks like a pretty good match! And the Mushroom ride seemed to match up with an image from an article about some of Bell's rides being relocated:
The other two photos on the strip show park attendees enjoying their day by attempting to climb through a fence and chowing down on some kind of probably-fried carnival faire:
Since the Park closed in 2006, the real tantalizing mystery remains: the negative strip and it's images are at least 14 years old, what might be its provenance? Our 2019 road trip did pass through Tulsa, it's possible that's where we found it. Even so, it's exceedingly strange that we'd somehow cross paths with this lost/tossed artifact from a defunct amusement park.
1 comment:
An amusing and interesting story, TSG, and fine detective work. I was wondering if a google images or Facebook "face" search would help to identify any off those people, but I kind of doubt if there's enough facial data/information to offer much hope of success in those regards. In any event, I kind of doubt if those long-lost pix are of much value to anyone (but then again, who knows?).
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