Happy Wednesday! Here today is a neat postcard shot that was from the later years of Boblo Island.
The caption on the back reads:
Also… Don’t forget about your chance to get a copy of the 2013 International Metropolis calendar. It makes a great gift, order now to guarantee arrival for the holidays. Only two more weeks until the pre-sale closes.
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I have many happy memories of Sunday afternoons at Bob-Lo. The little ferry from Amherstburg was always packed with visitors and there were lots of queues for the rides. I my recollection at least, Bob-Lo was a clean sort of place and the prices for tickets were great too. My cousins and I once took the big ferry (SS Columbia) from Detroit and it was VERY scary and we were afraid to go to the bathroom. We couldn't wait to get off and rather than go back that way, we took the Amherstburg ferry and had to wait for hours on the Sun Parlour coach to take us back to Windsor.
The only negative thing I can recall about Bob-Lo were the catering concessions. They were crap and very overpriced so we always brought a picnic with us.
Happy days indeed in the mid sixties.
I have been working with a biologist over on Bob-lo Island throughout the past couple years doing endangered plant/tree and animal studies and inventories. The decaying hulks of the old dock landing and entrance canopy, and the bumper car ride building are still standing, but, slowly falling into the earth. It is a very erie place to explore, and funny enough, some of the plants we are documenting are overtaking the old structures that are still standing, looking like something out of a horror flick.
I recall the park from when I was a kid, but that has all changed drastically now... not one indication of The Wild Mouse, Ferris Wheel or the other Roller Coaster rides - except for maybe a plant covered and cracked cement pad that they were standing on. A few piles of rusty metal here and there, rotting wood, and vine-covered, poison ivy infested buildings in the old amusement park area are all that remain. The north end of the island, however, has been populated with multi-million dollar mansions. The south end is a nature preserve and a white sandy beach where boaters spend their summer days sunning, no doubt.
Also, over the time we spent working there, we watched the block house near the south end go from a decrepit rotting pile of well over 300 year old oak timber to a restored structure. They did a great job - although I noticed they used a softwood instead of oak for the repair (what does that tell you about the availability of large timber/trees these day?) Some of the large scale replacement timber measured at least 12 x 16 inches by 18 feet in length. It must be difficult to find craftsmen to do large dimension timber reconstructions and restorations in this day and age.
I have photos of the old buildings that I can send you Andrew, if you wish.
i remember as a kid going to BOB-Lo when chrysler's had their picnic their my old man never went but my mother myself and my kid brother would take the Columbia from the foot of Ouellette i'd hang out with my friends for a couple hours then had to take my brother on the kiddie rides as he wasn't tall enough to ride the bigger rides i proposed to my first wife on the mouse