Negative-G - Six Flags St. Louis Daredevil Daze

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The Grand Ole Carousel being restored at Six Flags St. Louis, Eureka, Missouri

The Grand Ole Carousel was created and opened at Luna Park in Cleveland, Ohio in the year 1915. Think back to what was happening in the world as tools were taken to this wood to form it into this horse. Back in 1915 the city of Galveston, Texas was wiped off of the map by the great Galveston hurricane. The First World War raged in Europe and the RMS Lusitania was sank by a torpedo from a German submarine causing mass protests against Germany in the then neutral United States. Powered flight was only twelve years old and was still rare. The world of 1915 is almost unimaginable compared to the world of 2020 but one thing has stayed the same and that's the joy that this movable work of art gives. We may be surrounded by technology and a lifestyle completely unimaginable to those who first straddled this horse but the same need for fun exists in us today as it did in them back then.

Philadelphia Toboggan Company's carving foreman was Frank Carretta who immigrated to America from Milan, Italy to work as a carver in the furniture industry. Having seen that PTC was advertising for carvers he applied, was hired and quickly rose to the position of foreman. The bodies of the horses were carved by apprentices while the foreman, who was the master carver in the shop worked on the heads.

With all of the paint off it is easy to see how many different pieces of wood go into each horse. One thing that I didn't know was that each horse is hollow.

With well over a century of use there are bound to be parts of the Grand Ole Carousel that are worn out and need to be replaced. Most of the horses were carved out of butternut wood. Surprisingly the park had a large amount of locally sourced butternut wood that came from the old entrance plaza to the park. When the plaza was reworked this last winter the trees were saved and are being used when needed to help revive the Grand Ole Carousel.

Heading up this project is Megan from Six Flags St. Louis' Paint Shop who was here to show and tell all of us what goes into reviving the Grand Ole Carousel.