During the 1950s and ’60s, many Twin Cities children celebrated their birthdays with a party at Queen Anne Kiddieland, a wonderland of ponies, amusement rides and the Rock Island Rocket, a miniature 1/6 scale replica of a real train.
The park also provided summer entertainment, before modern amusement parks like Valleyfair and Nickolodeon Universe opened. Kiddieland’s rides were smaller, but even teens hung out there to flirt and find dates from neighboring towns.
Visitors recall that Queen Anne Kiddieland seemed to be in the middle of nowhere at the southeast corner of what is now the intersection of highways 494 and 100. But then, that land was in “the country.” In fact, the ponies came from Thomas’s 80-acre farm located a few miles away, at 78th Street and France Avenue in Bloomington, where he raised dairy cattle and hay.
By the end of the 1960s, however, the 494 strip transformed thanks to crowds at the new Metropolitan Stadium, freeway construction and the population boom. An office tower now stands at the Queen Anne Kiddieland site, but those who want to relive their past can still ride on the Rock Island Rocket, which is now housed at the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul.
Негізгі бет Queen Anne Kiddieland 1965, Bloomington MN
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