Pontchartrain Beach

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Pontchartrain Beach was an amusement park located in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It opened in 1928, across Bayou St. John from the existing amusement resort at Old Spanish Fort. In the early 1930s, as part of the lake shore was filled in and a seawall built, Pontchartrain Beach was moved to a new location at the lake end of Elysian Fields Avenue, a location formerly the lake edge of Milneburg before being filled in.

Milneburg Lighthouse, dating from the 1850s, predated Pontchartrain Beach, was a landmark in the park for decades, and still stands after Pontchartrain Beach is long gone.

The park was originally racially segregated for "Whites Only"; another lakefront resort was reserved for "Colored", Lincoln Beach. It was integrated in the early 1960s.

Pontchartrain Beach included a beach, amusement rides including a large roller coaster - The Zephyr, concession stands. The park featured live music concerts, including many local musicians and touring national acts such as Elvis Presley.

Other rides included the Zephyr Junior, Smoky Mary, The Wild Maus, Musik Express, Log Ride, The Ragin' Cajun (looping steel coaster), The Bug, Paratrooper, Calypso, "The Airplanes", Haunted House, Ghost Train, bumper cars, ferris wheel, and many others.

Pontchartrain Beach was closed in September 1983 due to decreasing attendance, rising insurance costs, pollution concerns in the lake, and the impending competition of the 1984 World's Fair.

Several of the rides ended up in Gulf Shores, Alabama at a small amusement park - including The Airplanes and many Kiddieland rides - which was subsequently wiped out by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Much of the land formerly housing the park is now used by the University of New Orleans.