After getting fired from Disney less than six months from opening Disneyland, CV Wood created his own company, filched a few Disney artists, and set out to build a series of Disneyland copies around the country. It didn’t go so well as only one of the four have survived (and he was fired from that one before it was even completed). The shortest-lived of the other three was an almost-a-park outside Denver called Magic Mountain. The park technically opened in 1960 for only one season, though they actually opened the gates in 58 in a desperate attempt to make at least some revenue to help finance construction. Very little of the planned park was ever built, and what did actually get done eventually became part of a family fun park called Heritage Square. That’s all gone now, and hardly anyone knows about the original Magic Mountain that preceded its more famous—and enduring—distant cousin in California.

It’s great fun to go back and see the marketing for these old parks; the ads are all taken from area newspapers at the time. The concept art, along with a good history and items of interest are available at Richard Gardner’s history site for the park. You can also get some history along with tons of great photos with Images of Modern America: Magic Mountain, by Bob McLaughlin.