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The Pike (site) (Long Beach, California)

USA / California / Signal Hill / Long Beach, California
 pier, amusement park, historical layer / disappeared object

95 South Pine Ave, Long Beach, CA 90802
(562) 432-8325
www.thepikeatlongbeach.com/

The Pike was a beach and bath house resort that was very popular with the residents of Los Angeles when its facilities first opened in 1902. Over the years, it changed from a bathing resort to a large amusement park with many rides, shows, and attractions.
It was located next to one of the most interesting pleasure piers ever built, the Rainbow Pier. This pier was built in the form of a rainbow, with its endpoints on the Long Beach shoreline, added to the popularity of the area with visitors. People from all over Los Angeles County made the trip to the Pike on weekends to experience the carnival, walk on the pier, and ride the "Cyclone Racer" roller coaster. The coaster, built in 1930 and demolished in 1968, was the most popular ride at the park. The Pike also featured a rare Looff carousel, which was built out of handcarved wood by Charles Looff, one of the foremost carousel designers and builder of the Santa Monica Pier. Only a few of these rare carousels are in existance today. The park was also famous for "The Plunge", a large indoor bathhouse that could accomodate hundreds of bathers.
One of the enduring legends of the park revolve around the story of the parks "dead man". For seven years, a dummy hung in the Laff in the Dark funhouse as a prop to scare patrons. Later, it was discovered that the dummy was in fact the real mummified corpse of Elmer McCurdy, an unsuccessful Oklahoma bank robber, had been sold in 1971 to a sideshow as a prop. The discovery was made when one of Elmer's arms was pulled off by a prop man during the filming of one of the Six Million Dollar Man episodes and examined by a doctor. Elmer was reburied in Guthrie, OK with 2 cubic feet of concrete over him so he would never suffer the indignity of being a prop again.
Over the years, the Pike fell out of favor as an amusement destination and finally closed down in 1979. The facilities were torn down over the years, the last remaining ones being an old tattoo parlor and the Looff carousel housing. These were recently torn down as well and nothing remains of the old Pike now except for the Jergins Tunnel and the Looff Lite-a-Line roof.
A new amusement area has been built, called the New Pike. This park, combined with other local attractions like the Aquarium of the Pacific, has reinvigorated the area and given it back some of its former luster. The New Pike is a tribute to, in the mind of many people, the best amusement park in Los Angeles for over 75 years.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   33°45'55"N   118°11'42"W

Comments

  • You (guest)
    Site of the Long Beach Grand Prix
  • DanielWilliams
    The current outline in yellow seems a bit off according to the pictures and an old map.
  • DanielWilliams
    Changed the outline to match the photos and roller coaster.
  • DanielWilliams
    Changed the outline because according to this picture of The Cyclone Racer, The LA County Courthouse is located to the West of the line extending North of the Coaster. http://www.millikanalumni.com/Pike/images/CYCLON5a.jpg http://www.millikanalumni.com/Pike/images/MapLongBeachOld_64.jpg The trees seen to the right of the demolished Coaster are the future site of the Downtown branch of the Main Public Library
This article was last modified 11 years ago