Knobeles
(spelled Knoebels) Amusement Park & Resort is a family owned
and operated amusement park, picnic grove and campground.
Knobeles is located in a wooded valley, in Central
Pennsylvania. The valley with its creek-fed swimming
hole, became a popular picnic destination in the early part of
the 20th century. Originally known as "Peggy's Farm," it
attracted weekend travelers and horse-drawn wagons. Henry
Knoebel, who had been farming the area, tended to the horses
as the travels enjoyed the swimming hole. He later began
to sell soft drinks, snacks and ice cream to the visitors.
Henry Knoebel leased plots of land along the creeks for use as
summer cottage sites as the popularity of "Knoebel's Grove"
grew and people came from afar to visit the picnic grove.
Today some of these original, privately owned cottages, as
well as cottages that Henry Knoebel himself built and rented,
still exist in the park.
In 1926 Knoebels Grove officially became known
as Knoebels Amusement Park. In that year, Henry Knoebel added
a restaurant, a steam-powered Philadelphia Toboggan Company
carousel and a few simple games to picnic his grove for
visitors to enjoy. On July 4 of that same year, he opened a
large concrete swimming pool on the same site of the old
swimming hole that attached the original visitors years
before. The pool was named "The Crystal Pool" and
featured a filtration system that provided clean water instead
of the muddy creek water. Since then the park has
developed around the pool and Pine Swamp Road that ran through
the park was closed to vehicular traffic and became the
midway. Knobeles added 50 more rides in addition to
assorted games, concession stands, a campground covered 160
acres with 500 sites and other attractions over the years to
become one of the most favored family oriented parks the U.S.
