‘A More Innocent Time’

Author shines a light on Detroit-area’s lost amusements parks

By Tim Smith

When people of a certain age recall places such as Bob-Lo Island, Edgewater Park and Walled Lake Amusement Park, thoughts return to a simpler, magical time.

Younger people might not know anything about those colorful destinations. But Northville author Joe McCauley does and he wrote the new paperback book Detroit’s Lost Amusement Parks to help boomers hit their memory’s refresh button – while at the same time educating later generations that there indeed were some ultra-cool places to spend weekends in metropolitan Detroit back in the day.

“All of this type of stuff, it just brings back your youth,” said McCauley, whose latest title (Arcadia Publishing, $23.99) hit stores and on-line vendors such as Amazon.com on May 15. “It’s usually a more innocent time for most people.”

McCauley’s book memorializes those times and experiences while presenting them for younger people to discover. Other chapters focus on: several iterations of a park located at the base of the Belle Isle Bridge in the early 20th century; the Michigan State Fair, Eastwood Park and “reincarnated” amusement sites.

The veteran writer melded historical information into his breezy, photo-laden narrative, but also wanted to tell personal stories and recollections that many people who grew up in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s can relate to.

People like Farmington Hills resident Ken Barna, who, like McCauley, was among the authors highlighted at the May 20 Local Author Fair at the Northville District Library. He bought a copy of McCauley’s book.

“The main reason I’m interested is, as a kid, we used to go to Edgewater Park all the time,” said Barna, about the neighborhood park which ran from 1927 until 1981. “It was on Seven Mile on the west side of Detroit. There were other local amusement parks on the far east side that we went to once in a while, but Edgewater was our big deal.”

Walled Lake’s amusement park had a roller-coaster that Barna liked, but he didn’t remember much else about the park formerly located on the waterfront near 13 Mile and Old Novi roads. At that juncture today sits Pavilion Park.

“It’s like they’re forgotten,” said Barna, asked why he thought it was important for McCauley to write about the amusement parks of their youth. “It’s mostly because the big things have taken over, like Disneyland or Seven Flags. There’s no such thing as a local amusement park (in 2023), that, really, was very, very important to the community.”

McCauley, himself, has so many fond memories of the era of local parks.

“The sights and the sounds, the popcorn smells, whatever’s cooking at the concession stands. And all the different sounds from the rides. Yelling and screaming,” he said. “They were family businesses, you know? It got to the point where the rides got bigger and more expensive. And once Disney came there in the Fifties it was pretty much signaling the end for the small-timers.”

But local amusement parks kept fighting the good fight for as long as they possibly could.

Many Northville residents of that era didn’t have to travel very far to spend time and money at the Walled Lake hot spot, which was a happening place to be between the 1930’s era of big bands to the early 1960s when rock and roll stars of the day (Chuck Berry, Fabian) performed. At one point it also was a casino.

“Lawrence Welk used to be out there in the summertime,” McCauley noted. “This was before his TV show. He would go out there (to Walled Lake) and play. He and his family would rent a cottage out on the lake for the whole summer.”

Among photographs in the book is one showing late-1950s local television icons Captain Jolley and Poopdeck Paul, who presented Popeye cartoons on CKLW-TV (Channel 9) in Windsor.

McCauley has an interesting tidbit about Chuck Berry, who performed at Walled Lake in 1963.

“He was just getting out of jail, and when he got out they were going to have him do a show at (Walled Lake) amusement park and casino,” McCauley said.

“What happened was, he flew into Detroit, and (local disc jockey) Lee Alan picked him up and went up Grand River because they didn’t have freeways back then.

“The traffic is all backed up and it was getting to the point where he (Berry) was going to be late for the show. So a cop comes by and (Alan asks him) ‘Why is traffic all backed up?’ He (the officer) said everybody was going out to Walled Lake to see Chuck Berry. But Chuck was right there in the car. So they (police) gave him an escort to get to the park.”

McCauley’s look at the days of yore tried to remain as positive as possible. But the world of small, local amusement parks started to change – not for the better – beginning in the mid-1960s on through 1993 (the official closure of Bob-Lo, a longtime favorite family destination nestled on a Canadian island some 18 miles southwest of Detroit).

“Bob-Lo is the last chapter,” McCauley added. “I probably could have done a whole book on Bob-Lo itself. Ownership was changing a lot and they finally decided” to permanently close the park.

Thirty years after Bob-Lo shut down for good following a decades-long run, the island features 140 expensive, private residences. Instead of the BobLo Boat, the only way to reach it is via a resident’s speedboat or yacht.

Although McCauley won’t be able to somehow spur a renaissance in area amusement parks simply by writing about them, he is hopeful his words (and photos) will at least keep memories alive for readers.

Joe McCauley’s Detroit’s Lost Amusement Parks can be purchased at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Target. com and other sites.