Idlewild Park — Oldest Amusement Park in Pennsylvania

Just up the road sits Idlewild Park, the oldest continuously operating amusement park in Pennsylvania and one of the oldest in the entire country. Its story begins in eighteen seventy-eight, when Pittsburgh banking magnate Thomas Mellon leased a stretch of land along his Ligonier Valley Railroad. Mellon's strategy was simple: give passengers a reason to ride. He opened a shaded picnic ground, and families flooded in.

By the eighteen nineties, rides started appearing. Some of those vintage attractions from the nineteen thirties still spin and rattle today, which is part of what makes Idlewild remarkable. It survived the railroad's closure, two World Wars, and the Great Depression, each of which shuttered amusement parks across the country.

Modern theme parks tend to chase bigger thrills and taller coasters. Idlewild chose a different path, earning national recognition as one of the best family parks in America. More than a century after Thomas Mellon opened a simple picnic ground, children are still laughing on the same hillside.