Story Land

By Jim Miller

When sedans and station wagons replaced trains for vacationers heading to New Hampshire s rugged and picturesque White Mountains, new motels and attractions catering to middle-class families sprang up amidst the established grand hotels and diversions for socialites, artists, skiers, and hikers. In 1954, a tiny children s park inspired by a collection of storybook dolls opened in the quiet village of Glen. Through a unique combination of independent innovation and regional cooperation, Story Land has continually grown for more than 50 years through economic and cultural changes that undermined many amusement parks. Parents still travel great distances for a Story Land getaway with their children, just as their own parents did, sharing a common experience that is talked about between multiple generations at family gatherings. This photograph collection illustrates the unlikely beginnings and creative entrepreneurship behind one of New England s most memorable and enduring childhood institutions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jul 19, 2010
• ISBN: 9781439638668

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INTRODUCTION

The background behind Story Land, a fantasy-based children’s theme park, features several elements of a good fairy tale. A young man is sent far from home to perform noble work in service of others under adverse circumstances. He faces an uncertain future in providing for his wife and young daughter. A serendipitous meeting with a stranger in a foreign land provides inspiration. After returning home, years of hard work, persistence, and imagination lead to the creation of a land of enchantment enjoyed by generations of families for miles around.

The young man was Robert S. (Bob) Morrell. Originally from Manchester, New Hampshire, he had grown up in North Conway since the age of 10. After serving in the army’s 10th Mountain Division ski troops during World War II, he returned to his home in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There he and his wife, Ruth, started a family with the birth of their daughter, Nancy, and started a business with the opening of their Eastern Slope Ice Cream Company. In 1950, Bob was called back to serve with the army’s Quartermaster Corps during the Korean War and was stationed in Germany for two years.

While serving overseas, and without an idea of an alternative occupation if he returned home safely again, Bob and Ruth decided to sell their small ice cream business. Dairyman Shumway Marshall purchased it, and the Marshall family operated the greatly expanded enterprise locally until 2010 under the banner of Abbott’s Premium Ice Creams.

On furloughs in Germany, Bob and Ruth Morrell toured historic sites. In 1952, they met Frau Edith Von Arps from Nuremberg, renowned toy capital of the world. A skilled toymaker whose dolls are well known amongst today’s collectors, she had lost her family in World War II and was struggling to survive by peddling handmade creations. The Morrells purchased a set of her dolls depicting familiar storybook characters, and she suggested they consider building a storybook village when they returned to the United States. Frau Von Arps thought it could be a way for the young couple to earn a living and could provide an outlet for her to sell more dolls.

Back home in the White Mountains, the Morrells initially wanted to build a Bavarian village to duplicate scenery they had found appealing overseas, but they quickly discovered the plans they envisioned were well beyond their financial means. Instead, they decided to see if they could actually create a family-oriented business based on children’s stories.

It was 1953 and theme parks were not yet common; Disneyland did not open until 1955. The amusement parks and picnic grounds that had existed for decades were primarily built by transportation companies to sell more trolley tickets, or by other large corporations to benefit their employees. There was no model for a themed attraction based in a rural area with some seasonal tourist traffic. However, the children of the Great Depression and veterans of the Great War were maturing into parents during growing prosperity and peacetime, and families were beginning to visit tourist regions in increasing numbers in their spacious new station wagons.

Entrepreneurs in attractive rural areas worked independently and with local help to create new diversions for growing numbers of visitors. At about the same time, in the mid-1950s, small children’s parks themed around central characters such as Santa Claus and Mother Goose sprang up in New York’s Adirondacks region and in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, among other places.

Bob and Ruth Morrell opened Story Town in Glen, New Hampshire, in 1954. The park was little more than a gravel footpath on hilly terrain with a handful of colorful small buildings representing nursery rhymes and storybook settings. Costumed actors played the parts of Mother Goose and Heidi’s Grandfather, while live animals took on the roles of famous nursery rhyme pigs, goats, sheep, and rabbits. The admission fee was 85¢, with children under 12 years old admitted for free. At the end of their first season, the Morrells changed the name of their park to Story Land to avoid confusion and legal wrangling with the new Storytown U.S.A. that Charles (Charley) Wood had opened that same summer near Glen Falls, New York.

Story Land’s first amusement ride was Freddy the Fire Truck—an actual Maxim Pumper fire engine manufactured in 1923 in Middleboro, Massachusetts, and designated for a scrap auction about 30 years later by the Hillsboro, New Hampshire, fire department. For 15¢ per child and 25¢ per adult in the mid-1950s, Freddy and a driver took guests for a spin through a wooded area that was later developed into the Antique Cars ride and part of the Story Land parking lot.

In 1957, the park’s fourth season featured the addition of Cinderella’s Castle and her Pumpkin Coach, a ride built locally and pulled by live ponies. A wood-fired miniature steam train was added in 1959 and was later replaced by a higher-capacity, gasoline-fueled CP Huntington model. By the early 1960s, Story Land had established a pattern of continual reinvestment of profits into the development of the park and earned a reputation as a clean and caring environment where families with young children could meet familiar characters and enjoy new surprises year after year.

Throughout its first half-century and beyond, Story Land remained true to its 1950s children’s theme park roots, resisting any temptation to incorporate thrill rides, arcades, a proliferation of carnival games, or commercial sponsorships. The more than 20 amusement rides today serve to complement rather than overwhelm the storybook-themed playgrounds, live and animated stage shows, costumed characters and live animals, manicured grounds and gardens, gift shops, and refreshment stands. The rides are all family oriented and sized for parents and children to share together; there are no kiddie rides that exclude guests over a specified height, and the few minimum height requirements are those for the safety of infants and toddlers.

Story Land operated as an independent small business owned by two generations of the Morrell family for over 53 years, through June 2007. Bob and Ruth Morrell each worked at the park throughout the rest of their lives, Ruth until 1990 and Bob until 1998. Their son R. Stoning (Stoney) Morrell Jr. presided over the business from the early 1980s until