Frontier Village: Images of America by Bob Johnson

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

It is one of those sepia covered books that seem to be everywhere covering local history. I picked it up because of my fondness for Frontier Village, obviously clouded and to find out what happened to the park.

I always figured that Frontier Village had been there for forever, but it turns out it's lifespan was only about twenty years. There are plenty of pictures but I wish it had been more extensive. I especially wanted actual photos of the construction of the park. There were a couple, but more would have been better. And in color. It also would have been fun to have pictures of what is there now juxtaposed with pictures of the park. It should have had a better maps sections and the pictures of the park itself could have been better.

Frontier Village was the place I begged the folks to take me until Great America Opened up. My father's companies had plenty of picnics there and they were all quite enjoyable.

The book should have been better.

[El Dingo]

Wow - I just had a conversation about Frontier Village with coworkers. They were both born and raised in the Bay Area and had never heard of it.

I went there several times as a kid. The 'Lost Dutchman Mine' was my favorite ride. The 'Shootouts' in the street were awesome. I even found one of the (planted) Indian head nickels.

Strangely enough we have no pictures from there. Apparently cameras rarely worked inside those Lincoln-log walls. A few photos can be seen here: http://www.frontiervillage.net/

My friend's dad went to the auction of the park's assets. He bought a bunch of license plate frames. RIP FV.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Wasn't it built on some quicksilver mines and overall kinda toxic?

[Drunk Monk]

I only have one memory of FV and that was of one of those street gunfights. I remember really liking that and thinking there should be more, but that was the only one I saw. Also it would have been better with swords. And blood spitting. A Bollywood dance number might have helped too.