Jefferson, New Hampshire, USA

Closed 2014

Every summer when I was a child my family would spend a week or two vacationing in New Hampshire and making the rounds to the various amusement parks in the White Mountains – Storyland, Santa’s Village, and Six Gun City being the three most memorable. Six Gun City was the one park that had visibly seen better days, yet the combination of water park (including a water slide that was enclosed and at one point the plastic tubing turned from a light permeable material to black creating a terrifying sense of not being able to see the route and turns in front of you) and kitschy Americana remained a draw year after year. I haven’t been there since the 1990s and see that the park closed in 2014, but it will remain a place I remember fondly. Emily D.

Six Gun City was a Frontier Western style attraction that was opened in 1954 along Route 2 by James and Eleanor Brady. They built the amusement park on what was originally their farm with their eight children. It was notable for featuring cowboy skits and for its collection of old farm implements. In 2014, the family decided to stop charging admission and to rename the park The Fort Jefferson Fun Park and Campground. The cowboy skits were discontinued.