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Community Corner

Memories of a Local Amusement Park

Bertrand Island was a Lake Hopatcong staple. Read about its history here.

Nickel night. The two most exciting words of a teenage summer.

To Baby Boomers who grew up near enough to Lake Hopatcong to go to Bertrand Island every week, Nickel Night was when you went.

In the glory days before seat belt laws, 13 kids in a station wagon or 15 in the back of an F-150 would rattle along the township roads, with a quick stop to twist the Orben Drive sign at Lake Rogerene and bounce into Bertrand Island.

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To youngsters of today who think of an amusement park as Dorney Park or Great Adventure, the 20 rides at Bertrand Island might seem lame. The wooden roller coaster rattled, the Lost River wobbled and the Tunnel of Love wasn’t really all that scary. The Astro Ride swung far over the lake (well, far if you were six); the best part of The Boomerang, known as the only ride of its kind, and manually operated, was when the circular car swung loose and bounded back and forth on the wooden walls of the tunnel. The ferris wheel was unbelievably high in the days before traveling carnivals set up in the parking lot of every Catholic church all summer. The Dodg’em Cars were the perfect opportunity to get back at whoever had harassed you at school.

Even the Midway was perfect, the duck shoot, the magnetic fish and the Pixy Stix you could win at the candy wheel.

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But the highlight was the carousel. Wooden horses, painted in Victorian grandeur. Could anything be more beautiful?

Bertrand Island is no longer an island, but it was when Charles Bertrand purchased it and built a grand home for his family. Bertrand died in 1870 and the house burned later, while the island was still connected to the mainland by a simple bridge.

A group who purchased the island built a clubhouse on the foundation of the Bertrand mansion. The Bertrand Island Clubhouse burned in the 1890s. In 1905 a consortium purchased the island and produced plans for a residential subdivision. It was never built, but the developers created a beach that became popular.

The open-air dance pavilion and carousel were the first amusements built, followed by the shooting range, water chute and diving float.

Bertrand Island wiped out its competition at Nolan’s Point and remained open into the 1970s, the site of day trips of senior citizen groups and pre-schoolers. Entertainment continued in the form of movies, dances and music ranging over the years from a beer garden to Sally Rand and her fans to a 10-piece band to Peter Frampton.

Over the years new attractions claimed the old fashioned amusement parks. Palisades Park, immortalized in early rock ‘n’ roll, closed, and so did Bertrand Island. Its last hurrah came courtesy of Woody Allen who shot scenes from “The Purple Rose of Cairo” at the closed park.

Now, with condominiums crowding the lake sure, all that remains of Bertrand Island are the memories and an “Images of America” book by Martin and Laura Kane called “Greetings from Bertrand Island Amusement Park.”

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