| In 1966, on a church outing, I was shocked to see the Mystery Ride had became the Monster Ride. The façade promised appearances by the Creature From The Black Lagoon, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The flashy Monster Ride had a red and white color scheme and an extended overhang on the second floor balcony. There are no sound effects being piped outside. Those accustomed to hearing the screeching jungle birds and the maddening pounding of the drums when they entered the park from the side parking lot were now greeted with unsettling silence. The jungle scenery has been replaced with a faux cave setup both on the balcony and the in the loading area. |
| The façade was now inhabited with Spadola’s bizarre interpretive renderings of the classic Universal movie monsters. Quite frankly, these were the classic monsters of an alternate universe, not the Universal creatures I grew up loving. Spadola’s Mummy had werewolf-like nails and wore suspenders. Frankenstein’s Monster is more reminiscent of a space alien with its claws and tentacles. The Creature From The Black Lagoon… he was presented multiple times in the loading area but most of his illustrations seemed to portray a real life person or an alien. |
The ride cars remained unchanged. Despite the new thrills and chills that the Monster Ride façade promised, the interior was exactly the same as the Mystery Ride! One would think this absurdity would have transformed riders into REAL raging werewolves, snarling that they’d been ripped off. But it never happened. The ride retained its incredible popularity. I’m not sure if riders never absorbed the memory of the sights inside the Mystery Ride, or if they knew it was the same interior, but simply didn’t care.
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When I spoke to Dom Spadola in 1977, he told me that he wanted to convert the interior to a monster theme to match the façade, but park management opted not to. The kicker is that Lincoln Park’s sister park, Mountain Park, also converted its Mystery Ride façade to something new with Spadola at the creative helm — Dinosaur Den (both rides shown above). Mountain Park’s Mystery Ride was almost identical to Lincoln Park’s rendition; It also was created by Leis and Spadola and both rides used identical rolling stock. You can learn more about the Mountain Park rendition here
Looking back on it, Lincoln Park’s Mystery/Monster Ride was probably Dom Spadola’s best surviving example of his work. My admiration for Dom is unsurpassed. He brought so much joy to New England parks with his creativity, among them Whalom Park, Crescent Park, and Salisbury Beach. |
| During some of my visits to Lincoln Park, the original Mystery Ride sound effects played inside and out of the Monster Ride, making it a delightful experience. But after May 1982, the ride became a shell of itself. According to The Herald News (Fall River), a fire was deliberately set in the Monster Ride. Dartmouth Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Barry said he believed a rider stepped out of a slow-moving car inside the darkened building and set fire to papier mâché wall coverings among the various monster displays. Barry believed the rider then stepped back into the car and exited the ride before the fire was noticed. |
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| Ironically, four years after Lincoln Park’s 1987 closing, fire destroyed the ballroom and seven buildings, including the Monster Ride. Two years later another fire destroyed the pavilion and some food concessions. |
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