Photo courtesy MIFFLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The miniature golf course at Kish Park remains a popular activity. As part of the overhaul, planners hope to gain hole sponsorship and have the course redesigned by students at The Academy.

LEWISTOWN — The old Scooter Building remains from Kishacoquillas Park’s glory days, standing as though the bumper cars could crash into each other at any moment. The protective mesh is still in place, but the structure has long been transformed into a picnic pavilion.

The former toy store now houses the Stone Arch Players’ community theater troupe, while the haunted house is the troupe’s backstage area. The arcade building has been converted into a maintenance garage for Derry Township vehicles.

All are still painted in amusement park style. This row of old buildings and a few other landmarks are all that remain from Kish Park’s heyday.

Fifty years after Hurricane Agnes came through in 1972, Kish Park is scheduled to undergo a significant renovation with a price tag of at least $11 million.

“Kish Park is a very important part of this community,” Derry Township Manager Kelly Shutes said. “We’ve had a lot of public participation through surveys to come up with ideas for the work that we want to have done.”

A new Kish Park

When designing the new Kish Park, Derry Township hired the architectural firm of YSM Landscape Architects of York. Surveys were sent to residents about the project as those involved tried to gauge the wants and needs of the community.

The response was overwhelming, Shutes said, of the 3,000 residents who looked at the survey, 1,500 of whom provided valuable feedback for the park’s master renovation plan.

“Judging by the online survey, Kish Park is a very important part of this community,” Shutes said. “The architects said that response to that was more than any other survey they had conducted.”

Renovation plans were unveiled during an open house in mid-June, as every part of Kish Park will be affected, including:

• Upgrading the playground.

• Widening and resurfacing the mile-long walking trail and adding a bicycle route.

• Adding permanent seats near the stage.

• Creating a few access points, so people can get into the creek.

• Building recreational facilities, including a skate park, basketball court and splash pad.

• Offering a nature area at the far end as well as a nature playground with climbing rocks and logs.

• Creating an “Instagrammable” entrance just over the bridge.

• Formalizing parking in three areas to help make the park safer for people of all ages.

• Remodeling the 18-hole mini-golf course.

• Dredging the pond, which has become full of silt, and re-stocking it with fish.

• Renovation of existing buildings and pavilions.

• Constructing a new pavilion near the slow-pitch softball field and at least three new restroom facilities.

“Having bathrooms that are ADA accessible was our No. 1 request” in the survey, Shutes said.

A contract to dredge the pond and improve its current situation has been awarded and will begin soon. Grants in the amount of $1.5 million for the first phase have been submitted to update the playground, install a splash pad and renovate existing restrooms.

The township will know by this fall if the money is awarded. There are engineering plans, cost analyses and project bidding to be completed. None of this will happen overnight, Shutes said.

“By the end of the year, we hope to get the dredging of the pond completed,” she explained. “The pavilion to be erected near the slow pitch field has been ordered, and we hope to get it in, as materials become available.”

Shutes is hopeful for community involvement with the mini-golf course, which is one of the most popular attractions at Kish Park. She hopes the business community will sponsor holes around the course and Mifflin County Academy of Science and Technology will assist with new designs and construction work.

“People want to get out and have things to do,” Shutes says. “The golf course is one of them. The remodeling is in the preliminary stage.”

Kish Park does have some semblance of its past self as the buildings have been re-purposed instead of being razed.

Park’s past

Founded in 1900, Kish Park was one of Pennsylvania’s many trolley parks. The local trolley company started an end-of-the-line park to encourage ridership. The 45-acre park was located along beautiful Kish Creek where it enters the Juniata River.

Kish Park survived the Great Depression and World War II. After World War II, new owners increased the total number of amusement park rides to 15. After the destruction of Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the owners decided to close it. The site sustained severe damage. They sold the rides and parts to other damaged parks, and the land eventually became a community park.

Those with fond memories of the park will remember the merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, junior rollercoaster, a dark ride called “Fun In The Dark,” bumper cars (scooters), hand-cranked kiddie cars on a track, swan boats and kiddie circular boat ride.

The cement ring where the kiddie circular boat ride was and the pond for the swan boats remain, as does the scooter building and the dark ride building.

Taking shape

Today, there are ball fields, camp sites and an 18-hole mini-golf course — and the row of old buildings. In addition to nine large picnic pavilions, which are available to rent, there is a playground and a walking trail. The park’s pool, which was popular since the early days, closed years ago, and has been filled in. The space is now used as a dog park.

Shutes hopes the splash pad, where ground nozzles spray water upwards out of the rain deck, can serve as a replacement for the pool.

“The kids run through them and play,” she explained. There’s not anything like it in the area.”

The amusement park rides are gone, but not forgotten.

After the flood, the park was purchased by Derry Township and went into operation as a recreational facility in 1974. It was also known as Derry Township Community Park, but it changed back to Kish Park in 2013 to honor its long heritage and history in Mifflin County.

The park has become home to several area Pony League and Little League baseball teams, as well as Pee Wee Football. “We’d like to improve the viewing area for parents and friends to watch the games,” Shutes said.

“There are other areas of the park we’d like to address as funds become available,” she added.