The Mother Lode

A long time ago, there used to be an amusement park near Lake George called the Magic Forest. Besides the kiddie rides, the owner also collected and displayed many different statues and figurines throughout the wooded park. The 46 acre property has been sold and the new owners are making way for what we heard is a dinosaur park. Many of the old items have been put up for sale on an online auction, and we had a once in a lifetime opportunity to go and tour the place and preview the 800+ items up for bid. Cousin Chuck, who is as eclectic as we are and had discovered the auction, met us up there, and what a day we had! Not only were there items in the abandoned park, but also in a storage warehouse, in containers, and in fields, located behind the scenes. It was all so eerie, but oh so much fun!

 

This caterpillar ride was not up for bid, but it sure would be fun to own...

The Magic Forest Animal Land Band can be bid on separately or as a group.

The "Old Lady in a Shoe" is up for grabs, but it would be interesting getting it moved. This old lady (aka me) should have been in the photo. 😉

Rip Van Winkle was waking up...

There were about a dozen of these mechanized Snow White displays that can be bought. They all worked, including the old time music!

This train was on display and not for sale. 

Dave and Chuck explored the train cars stored under the covered bridge...

Smokey the Bear is in great shape and the bidding is high for this item.

Behind the scenes, in a different storage area, were these containers and the tea cups from a ride.

Boat rides and the tops from the Tilt-A-Whirl...

Inside the containers there were some really neat items, but some creepy ones too.

The warehouse had some really large displays up for grabs, along with some car parts that weren't for sale...but more on that in a bit.

Out into the field we found more boating 'treasures'!

I personally would love to have an elephant in our woods. Wouldn't that surprise the deer...and our neighbors?

Then it was time to climb up a hill to the wayyyy back storage area and we found the rainmaker. It would look great at the truck and tractor shows. We are watching the bids and will see if it is worth buying.

We also found this other train that looked to be in service, and not for sale. The inquisitive guys had to find out how it was powered and Chuck located a Corvair engine in the coal car.

There were more containers to look in even further back, so we certainly didn't miss a thing on the property. Chuck ended up meeting the owner, Jack Gillette, who had collected everything throughout the years, and he invited us into his private warehouse to see something totally on the other end of the spectrum from all the old figurines. It was his collection of 53 spectacular Corvettes! They were packed into an immaculate building and I was afraid to even move so as not to touch anything. I didn't know if Jack allowed photos to be taken so I opted not to. What an experience though! Later I did find out that the cars were on display at the Saratoga Auto Museum at one time. No wonder there were some car parts mixed in with everything else in the other warehouse. Now to top off the day, there just happened to be the 6 PM WNYT newscaster on site, doing a special on the auction and they interviewed Chuck! You can see the video here: Owner of old Magic Forest theme park auctioning off unique décor | WNYT.com  The auction is through Collar City Auctions and ends 11 AM, Oct 1st, if you would like to see more. Chuck is bidding on some items for his blueberry farm in Galway, to entertain the kids, and we are watching a few items too. This was our favorite...

I will let you know if we end up getting anything, so stay tuned!