Santa's Workshop (amusement park)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Santa's Workshop in Wilmington, New York at the "North Pole" is an amusement park that has been in operation since 1949. It was one of the first theme parks in the United States, and featured the world's first petting zoo. On December 16, 1953, the U.S. Postal Service awarded North Pole, New York "Rural Postal Station" status.
The idea for the village originated in a story that Lake Placid businessman Julian Reiss told his daughter about a baby bear who visits Santa Claus at the North Pole. The design of the park was done by artist Arto Monaco, of Upper Jay, and built by Harold Fortune, of Lake Placid, who also owned the site, and helped promote the park.
The park drew immediate media interest, with attendance peaking at 14,000 on September 2, 1951.
Reiss later started "Santa's Operation Toylift" using his own plane with which he delivered toys and gifts to underprivileged children in northern New York and Vermont. This grew with the provision of a C-46, the "Silver Sleigh", by Standard Oil of New Jersey, to cover 13 States, the District of Columbia and two Provinces of Canada delivering ten tons of presents to orphaned children.
