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1. While for most of its history Story Land was a family-owned park, a few years ago it was sold to Kennywood Entertainment and in turn to Parques Reunidos, a large company that operates lots of parks worldwide, mostly in Europe but increasingly in the US through acquisition.
So this little homespun-looking park is in fact part of a gigantic multinational chain rivaling Six Flags, though the only sign I noticed of wider corporate branding was an ad for Lake Compounce (another Parques Reunidos property acquired via Kennywood) in the middle of the Antique Cars track.
2. The little Polar Coaster was one of only seven roller coasters built by Hopkins, a company that mostly specializes in log flumes and other water rides (they built the flume at Canobie). Their coasters weren't all small family coasters; some were fairly big ones with loops, and the designs seem to have varied a lot. Hopkins also got some business making replacement track and supports for old Arrow coasters, including the Canobie Corkscrew. The Polar Coaster also apparently had some kind of involvement from Morgan, a company mostly known for making 200-foot megacoasters (aha, seems they made the trains).
3. In the queue for the Antique Cars, they've got some old maps of Story Land through the years, and some showed an "Iceberg Coaster" where the Polar Coaster is now. I'd assumed it was just an earlier name for the same ride, but in fact it was a different ride that looked disturbingly like some hobbyist's backyard coaster. The track was apparently designed and built in-house.
So this little homespun-looking park is in fact part of a gigantic multinational chain rivaling Six Flags, though the only sign I noticed of wider corporate branding was an ad for Lake Compounce (another Parques Reunidos property acquired via Kennywood) in the middle of the Antique Cars track.
2. The little Polar Coaster was one of only seven roller coasters built by Hopkins, a company that mostly specializes in log flumes and other water rides (they built the flume at Canobie). Their coasters weren't all small family coasters; some were fairly big ones with loops, and the designs seem to have varied a lot. Hopkins also got some business making replacement track and supports for old Arrow coasters, including the Canobie Corkscrew. The Polar Coaster also apparently had some kind of involvement from Morgan, a company mostly known for making 200-foot megacoasters (aha, seems they made the trains).
3. In the queue for the Antique Cars, they've got some old maps of Story Land through the years, and some showed an "Iceberg Coaster" where the Polar Coaster is now. I'd assumed it was just an earlier name for the same ride, but in fact it was a different ride that looked disturbingly like some hobbyist's backyard coaster. The track was apparently designed and built in-house.