If you’ve known me for more than 20 minutes, you’ll know I’m a huge amusement park and roller coaster nerd. Heck, if you’ve read my Spectator bio, you’ll know that about me.
It’s a goal of mine to visit as many amusement parks and ride as many roller coasters as possible. While I haven’t visited too many parks so far, one has stood out as my undeniable favorite since my lone visit there in May 2022.
Little Amerricka in Marshall, Wisconsin opened in 1991, and from what I can gather, it started as a hobby by the park’s founder, Lee Merrick. He picked up two dozen old-timey rides from auctions, plopped them down next to a cemetery and let the world enjoy.
It is no doubt, then, why Little Amerricka carries the vibe it does. It is a “screw it, we ball” attitude in amusement park form. So, with amusement park season right around the corner, I thought I’d reflect on all the reasons why you should visit Little Amerricka this summer.
Little Amerricka has a stupidly fun collection of rare roller coasters — four in total — with the headliner being Swiss Toboggan.
Swiss Toboggan is one of the first things you see driving up to the park, looking like a silo with a coaster track winding around it. The ride is a Chance Rides Toboggan model, which was very popular in the 1960s and 70s but has since faded into obscurity.
Swiss Toboggan is the only permanent operating Toboggan left in North America, and it gives a one-of-a-kind ride experience in more ways than one.
You sit in a tight, enclosed boot-shape car with a bulky foam pad crushing your thighs and the roof an inch over your head (unless you’re tall). The ride starts with a vertical climb up the inside of the silo structure before emerging at the top.
Unless your car doesn’t connect to the lift chain, then the ride operator will take a puff from their cigarette, remove you from the vehicle and close the ride for 20 minutes.
At the top, you’ll get a great view of the cemetery before spiraling down the silo structure. Eventually, you’ll hit a small dip, having gained so much speed that your head will rocket into the vehicle’s roof.
After a few more dips guaranteed to jostle you around like a cocktail shaker, you slam into the brakes and the ride ends. You may have a headache, newfound claustrophobia, or you may never want to ride a roller coaster again. Or, like me, you’ll regain your bearings and hop right back in line.
My favorite roller coaster in the park is Mad Mouse — a rare Allan Herschell Wild Mouse from 1960. On this ride, you sit in a bathtub-esque vehicle with no restraints, so if Swiss Toboggan was too constraining, this is perfect for you.
You start by going up the lift hill, unless your car doesn’t connect to the lift chain. Then, you will valley (get stuck) immediately, and the ride operator will rock you back and forth until the chain connects and your ride begins.
Mad Mouse consists mostly of sharp hairpin turns meant to make you feel like you’re going to fly out of the vehicle and die. Fun, of course, but my favorite part of the ride is the airtime hill grand finale — four consecutive violent jerks, including a fifth one into the brakes.
My favorite thing about Mad Mouse is that on the day I went, there was never a line, so it felt less like a roller coaster and more like a playground slide.
There were no tickets to scan and no restraints to check, so as soon as each ride ended, I could get off and hop right back on without waiting for anything.
For fans of a conventional roller coaster experience, Meteor — the park’s only wooden roller coaster — is for you.
While not as thrilling as the other two coasters mentioned, Meteor is a smooth ride with solid airtime in the back car, and it goes around its circuit three times per cycle.
The operators on Meteor are also always a pleasure. Before you depart the station, they’ll let you know you can ride with your hands raised above you but not stretched out behind you or to your side. Visual example provided.
Little Amerricka’s flat ride collection is also absurd. The Tilt-A-Whirl has a Mario statue in the center. The Scrambler takes three minutes to get up to speed, then stays at full speed for another three minutes.
When I was at the park, a girl on the bumper boats got upset that she was getting sprayed at and stood up in the middle of the ride.
There’s a go-kart track, a haunted house walkthrough and a homemade-looking monorail that takes you around the park, giving possibly the best views of the cemetery.
Finally, there’s a train ride that apparently lasts 45 minutes. It goes through the middle of the park, and there’s no fencing to prevent anyone from hopping in front of the train. I haven’t ridden the train yet, so it’s a must-do whenever I go back.
Overall, while Little Amerricka isn’t objectively the best amusement park, there really is nothing else like it.
Little Amerricka doesn’t try to make itself polished or even make sense. Again, a cemetery is right next door, ride operators smoke on the job, the roller coasters jerk you around with little regard for your safety and Mario is just kind of there.
Yet there’s an undeniable charm that comes from the park’s retro feel, not just in its ride collection but also in its safety standards.
I never felt unsafe at Little Amerricka. Instead, the park’s rejection of these safety norms gave me a constant adrenaline rush. Little Amerricka offers the freedom of a playground in amusement park form.
And if you’re like me, the ultra-rare roller coasters are a nice bonus.
Coleman can be reached at [email protected].
