I now go to the coffee shop that is the only building left from the Land of Make Believe. Great food at great prices. Not the same as when I was six or seven, but decades later I'll take what I can get. I still enjoy my trips to the area and up to the North Pole.
Thank you so much for posting this. I have recently found the pictures of my 6 year old self sitting in Cinderella's chair, in the animal train car, and other wonderful memories from this magical enchanted place. It is sad that nature claimed it for herself. Great tribute, thanks again.
So glad my parents took me and my sister here when we were kids. As fate would have it, I ended up living in the North Country and unfortunately, thanks to the years of flooding, I was never able to take my own children there. Also sorry to here about hurricane Irene wiping out the castle. I know a lot of people worked to rebuild it. Mr. Monaco was a special person. Thanks for posting.
Outstanding video, I have pictures, from my trip to the Adrondacks, from the year 1969. I was only 10. I didn't know where some of those photos were. My father was in one of those photos, where the castle was. The camera lens we had couldn't get all the subject matter in the shot, unlike those digital lenses today. I had to match up the windows, on the castle with the photo, in your video, to confirm where the picture was from. Wow. And that, western town scenery with the stagecoach. I have a picture of that and didn't know where it was until your photo was similar to the one my father took of my family in the stagecoach with a Collie dog sleeping in the middle of the street. Colored film, in 1969, was not exactly something that you could waste your money on. Your video has things, that I probably seen and long forgotten, don't have pictures of. Great photos and thanks for the video. Amazing!
Wow, It's great to see a tribute to Arto Monaco! I'm fascinated by his work. I think he built the "Santa's Workshop, North Pole" in New York, which I think is the only remaining theme park that he built.
The story of how Arto came to design "Santa's Workshop, North Pole is fascinating. There are videos posted by friends of Arto who explaing how the charming Christmas village was created. A little girl was inspired to visit a village where Santa lived at the North Pole. She spoke to her father - he in turn spoke to Arto and conceiving and deslgning the village. I understand there were no blueprints involved. Arto made the drawings of the landscape and the charming buildings. Arto created the first theme park in America. His first commercial venture was Santa's Worshop, North Pole which I visited when a youth. His second venture was "Old MacDonald's Farm - His own creation "Land of Makebelieve" was his dream brought into reality. Arto became friends with Charlie Woods. Charlie was the creator of Storytown, Ghost town, Jungle Land located in Lake George. I visited this park too when I was a boy. Today 6 Flags owns the park and has been renamed "Great Escape." Arto and Charlie ventured together to create "Gaslight Village" which was also located in Lake George. Ths was a nostalgic park of the 'keystone cops" era. I believe that Arto helped the designing of "Frontier Land" as well. Although I never met Arto; he has played an important role in my life - more significant to me personally than Walt Disney.
hi all it was Upper Jay N.Y. not Jay Their is a town of Jay and a hamlet 4 miles up the road called Jay many people got it confused and had a hard time finding the Land of Makebelieve
I now go to the coffee shop that is the only building left from the Land of Make Believe. Great food at great prices. Not the same as when I was six or seven, but decades later I'll take what I can get. I still enjoy my trips to the area and up to the North Pole.
Thank you so much for posting this. I have recently found the pictures of my 6 year old self sitting in Cinderella's chair, in the animal train car, and other wonderful memories from this magical enchanted place. It is sad that nature claimed it for herself. Great tribute, thanks again.
Arto was go gifted.
So glad my parents took me and my sister here when we were kids. As fate would have it, I ended up living in the North Country and unfortunately, thanks to the years of flooding, I was never able to take my own children there. Also sorry to here about hurricane Irene wiping out the castle. I know a lot of people worked to rebuild it. Mr. Monaco was a special person. Thanks for posting.
Omg I loved this place as a kid!! We use to go camping near Saranac Lake and going to Land of Makebelieve was always the best part of the trip for me!
I went here when I was five or so and LOVED IT. I always wanted to go back!
Outstanding video, I have pictures, from my trip to the Adrondacks, from the year 1969. I was only 10. I didn't know where some of those photos were. My father was in one of those photos, where the castle was. The camera lens we had couldn't get all the subject matter in the shot, unlike those digital lenses today. I had to match up the windows, on the castle with the photo, in your video, to confirm where the picture was from. Wow. And that, western town scenery with the stagecoach. I have a picture of that and didn't know where it was until your photo was similar to the one my father took of my family in the stagecoach with a Collie dog sleeping in the middle of the street. Colored film, in 1969, was not exactly something that you could waste your money on. Your video has things, that I probably seen and long forgotten, don't have pictures of. Great photos and thanks for the video. Amazing!
Wow, It's great to see a tribute to Arto Monaco! I'm fascinated by his work. I think he built the "Santa's Workshop, North Pole" in New York, which I think is the only remaining theme park that he built.
The story of how Arto came to design "Santa's Workshop, North Pole is fascinating. There are videos posted by friends of Arto who explaing how the charming Christmas village was created. A little girl was inspired to visit a village where Santa lived at the North Pole. She spoke to her father - he in turn spoke to Arto and conceiving and deslgning the village.
I understand there were no blueprints involved. Arto made the drawings of the landscape and the charming buildings.
Arto created the first theme park in America. His first commercial venture was Santa's Worshop, North Pole which I visited when a youth. His second venture was "Old MacDonald's Farm - His own creation "Land of Makebelieve" was his dream brought into reality.
Arto became friends with Charlie Woods. Charlie was the creator of Storytown, Ghost town, Jungle Land located in Lake George. I visited this park too when I was a boy. Today 6 Flags owns the park and has been renamed "Great Escape." Arto and Charlie ventured together to create "Gaslight Village" which was also located in Lake George. Ths was a nostalgic park of the 'keystone cops" era. I believe that Arto helped the designing of "Frontier Land" as well.
Although I never met Arto; he has played an important role in my life - more significant to me personally than Walt Disney.
Everything about this is "perfectly insane," even hard to believe. Amazing stuff!
This is amazing and well done! Thanks for sharing:)
Who does the song accompanying this video. I love it
wow that was so cool! who's the singer?!?
The castle has finally fallen :(. It and many other things were wiped out by the floods caused by hurricane Irene (August 2011)
hi all it was Upper Jay N.Y. not Jay Their is a town of Jay and a hamlet 4 miles up the road called Jay many people got it confused and had a hard time finding the Land of Makebelieve
Looking for it on Google Earth. Do you know the address it used to be at? I know it's gone but wanna see what it looks like now from above.