Fresno Famous

On May 19th, a Fresno landmark hit the big "Five-Oh!" Storyland, the iconic children's fairytale-themed play land in Roeding Park celebrated its golden anniversary. In The Fresno Bee's "Central Valley" magazine (publishing this weekend), there is an article with a detailed history of the creation of the park. How it came to be, who the movers and shakers were that put it together and how it almost ceased to exist are all told.

The article is also availble (until the next issue publishes) here: http://specialsections.fresnobee.com/SS/Page.aspx?ptype=SS_TILES&secid=120337&pagenum=1&facing=false

(You will want pages 36 - 41)

In addition to the article, below you will find a link to a video about the anniversary. While not nearly as detailed as the article, it is chuck full of photos and audio/video of the anniversary celebration, the park during construction, when it opened and today. It also goes into detail about the park's origins, as in the selecting of an artist to construct the storybook set pieces as shown below (as well as an alternate design never constructed by another artist) --- up through the anniversary and even the tiniest peek at the extensive plans for the future.

You'll see the oriiginal concept drawings, behind-the-scenes construction photos (like the one below) and shots of long-gone attractions you might remember -- or NEVER KNEW EXISTED!

The video link is here:  http://youtu.be/JCJ1l6T3Deo  (Forgive the --oops!--typos)

The video is kind of long--nearly 20 minutes--but just about every attraction past and present (except maybe the long-gone original "Fly and the Bumblebee" and the blue whale thing that briefly used to be by the wishing well) is covered to some degree intermixed with anniversary day footage. The audio of the day's entire celebratory speeches is included.