From the Wild West to water slides, do you remember these MS Coast amusement parks?
Friday’s opening of Paradise Pier Park at Margaritaville Resort Biloxi has people thinking back to all the fun they had at amusement parks and attractions in South Mississippi over the years.
“Humpty Dumpty, a dayglow Sphinx, Wet Willy’s and Slippery Sam’s waterslides and goofy golf courses once were landmarks in South Mississippi until time or Katrina swept them away,” a 2014 article in the Sun Herald recalled.
The ‘60s and ‘70s on the Coast were days of wild west shows at Six Gun Junction Ghost Town in Biloxi.
While they are dazzled by the new thrill rides at Paradise Pier, locals miss the arcade at Boomtown Casino, warm summer nights at the Coast’s drive-in theaters and navigating the lazy river at the Oasis in Gulfport.
These and other Coast attractions were lost to time or Katrina.
Paradise Pier will be for today’s kids and young families what these attractions were to families who lived on the Coast or vacationed in South Mississippi from the 1960s through 2005.
Posted on Trip Advisor 18 years ago, before Hurricane Katrina, was a comment to a person considering a family vacation in South Mississippi:
“The Grand has Kids Quest, Boomtown has it’s arcade with the famous motion theatre rides,” the post said. “On Hwy 90 besides the beach there are a couple of kids amusement parks (Golf Magic, Water U.S.A., Slippery Sam’s, Marine Life, Ship Island Excursion ‘the best’ and others).”
The post ended with, “If you are looking for a Disney World vacation here in Biloxi/Gulfport you won’t find it, but you will enjoy a relaxed fun-filled family getaway that you will have to come back to.”
Here’s a look back at fun on the Coast:
Six Gun Junction opened in June 1964, according to an article in the Biloxi-Gulfport Daily Herald that described the attraction as “an old Western frontier town” with a shoot-out every hour.
Like a town from a John Wayne movie, it had a courthouse, jail, general store, livery stable, undertaker, a harness shop and Indian villages nearby. A honky-tonk piano and stage shows were part of the Red Dog Saloon experience.
“Heroes and villains, dressed in western costumes, will stage bank robberies and jail breaks throughout the day,” the article said.
Six Gun Junction was adjacent to the Eight Flags Deer Ranch on DeBuys Road on the Biloxi-Gulfport line. The attractions closed in 1984, according to the Biloxi Library History Department, which posted a shoot-out photo on its Facebook page. The park is so fondly remembered there’s a website group to share experiences.
One person who commented recalls: “There were six gun shoot outs with cowboys, can-can girls in the Red Dog Saloon, feeding the deer, watching the bird show, trying to walk through the Gravity House without falling.”
It was one of the attractions created by Don Jacobs, who started working in 1960 with Tom Lamerth to make the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport a major draw. Called the “Mississippi Gulf Coast Walt Disney,” by Reed Guice, Jacobs added another attraction every year, like Biloxi Shrimp Tour Train at the Biloxi Lighthouse and the Harbor Queen boat tour in Gulfport.
Slippery Sam’s water park on the Biloxi Strip, across U.S. 90 from Magic Golf, boasted a triple waterslide, speedslide, kiddie pool, kid rides and concessions. A ride on the bumper boats was $3.25 additional. The park was open from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. in season and the fee schedule let sliders pay $6 an hour or for the evening special. The all day rate was $11, which adjusted for inflation is equal to $22 today.
The park fell into disrepair and in 2000, developers from New Orleans wanted to build The Portofino, an $85 million condo development with two 13-story towers. A two-bedroom, two bath condo would sell for $330,000, according to an article in the Sun Herald. The 65 penthouses and super penthouses would sell for an average of $750,000.
Biloxi Council voted 6-1 not to grant the height variance because the site was in the departure path of the main runway at Keesler Air Force Base.
Slippery Sam’s site now is Finishline Performance Karting, complete with racetracks and ziplines.
Wet Willie’s triple waterslide was on Beach Boulevard, west of Cowan Road in Gulfport.
Fun Time USA on Cowan Road in Gulfport was open until “whenever the last person leaves” on weekends. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall near the entrance and the Statue of Liberty reigned over the fountain. Players at the mini golf course hit their ball through octopus tentacles and into an alligator’s mouth.
Admission to the park was free and in 1994 it cost $3 each to ride the bumper boats, play mini golf or take a spin on the go-carts.
The O’Neal family that operated Fun Time USA for 27 year before it was destroyed by Katrina is working to get a new version of the park built near the beach in Biloxi.
Wonderland Entertainment Park opened in 1990 south of the interstate in Gautier. It was both an amusement park and a water park with four large waterslides plus kiddie slides, a swimming pool, sunbathing island, go carts, a 71-foot red Ferris wheel, an antique carousel, bumper boats and batting cages. The amusement park was owned by Marshall “Bob” and Sandra Jean Williams of Woolmarket, who also owned Slippery Sam’s and Magic Golf in Biloxi.
Goofy Golf courses with huge dinosaurs and other colorful characters were part of the allure of the neon Biloxi Strip back in the day. The dinosaur at Magic Golf and Biloxi Beach Amusement Park was built in 1961 to entice tourists and locals to play a game of putt-putt golf, and it welcomed generations of guests at the gate of the amusement park. It survived Hurricane Camille and other storms but not Katrina.
Cookie’s Bayou Tours in Bay St. Louis and Belle Carol Beach Rides on an authentic paddlewheeler from the Pass Christian Harbor are more rides and attractions that are just memories.
While these attractions and parks are gone, others that operated in the 1960s and ‘70s remain, like Ship Island Excursions, Buccaneer Bay Water Park, Biloxi Shrimping Trip aboard the Sailfish and Biloxi Schooner trips — and more family attractions are opening and on the way.
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 9:16 AM.
