Located in
a northern suburb of Altoona, Tipton Pennsylvania, amount the Allegheny
Mountains, is a charming family amusement park called DelGrosso's Amusement Park.
Family-oriented and full of family-friendly rides, games, free
admission and free parking, DelGrosso's Amusement Park has been
providing great fun and entertainment to the region for nearly
70 years.
DelGrosso's was originally named Bland's Park, named after
the Blands' family farm on which the park was first conceived by
the Rinard brothers in 1907 when they first brought their
carnival to Fred Bland's Tipton farm. 12 years later, Fred
Bland opened the small park, which at the time was only a picnic
grove a small dance floor. During the prosperous 1920's,
the park received a lot of visitors, many of which were in
Tipton to watch the races at the Altoona-Tipton Speedway just up
the road. In 1928, the Bland Family sold the park to
George Rinard, who expanded the park and installed more rides
and built a roller skating rink and a bowling alley. But
then during the great depression the park fell into disrepair.
By 1946 the park only had a few picnic shelters still standing
when Fred DelGrosso, an Altoona railroader purchased the
property and immediately began rebuilding the park. Over
the next ten years the park was re-born bigger and better then
it had ever been in the past. The original name remained
for the next 54 years as the DelGrosso family continued to
improve and expand the park. In 2000 Bland's Park was
renamed DelGrosso's Amusement Park.
The
park continues to operate today with a wide variety of rides
including one of the three "Caterpillar" rides that are still in
operation in the country. Other notable rides include an Eli
Bridge Ferris wheel, Antique Carouselle (Italian for Carrousel),
Pharaoh's Fury, the Yo-Yo, Scrambler, Tipton Creek Railroad,
Free Fall, Tilt-A-Whirl, Paratrooper, Space Odyssey, Flying
Bobs, Super Spiral, Dodgems, Casino, X Scream among others.
Two other notable attractions include Go-Karts at the
Altoona-Tipton Speedway and a Mini-Golf course.
DeGrosso's has three Roller Coasters: Crazy Mouse, the Wacky
Worm and Corkscrew.
The list of Kiddie Rides includes: Fire Trucks, Corvette Race
Cars, Boats, Elephants, Whales, Turtle, Dizzy Dragons,
Helicopters and a Merry-Go-Round.
Their
Water Attractions include Tipton Waterworks, Tipton Rapids,
Green Tower Midnight Express, Great White and Gravity Groove as
well as Red Tower Twin Twisters.
The park also hosts music events in its pavilion picnic area.
And if the name DelGrosso sounds familiar, that might be because
the DelGrosso family is also the owner and founder of DelGrosso
Foods, Inc. which produces and distributes spaghetti sauce,
spaghetti noodles, pizza sauce, and other Italian items.
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