Libertyland was an amusement park with a patriotic theme located at the Mid-South Fairgrounds in Memphis. It was probably best known for the roller coaster called the Zippin Pippin in part because Elvis Presley declared it as his favorite ride. This ride was built at the Fairgounds around 1912, years before the amusement park opened on July 4, 1976. I have several friends who were music performers at Libertyland in its early years. One of them was even an Elvis impersonator. Libertyland was only a moderate success. Most of my visits to Libertyland were made during the Mid-South Fair in the fall and rarely a summer trip when it was just the amusement park.
In the early 1980’s when I was dating my future wife, we went on a trip to Libertyland with her mother, her brother and his girlfriend. During the visit we rode the Pippin. This wooden roller coaster always felt like the tracks were coming apart, especially when the cars went around a corner. For me this always added to the fear factor of the Pippin. Later in the day, we rode another roller coaster called the Revolution. The Revolution was added to the park in 1979, so it had a much more robust design. It featured a corkscrew design which was the reason for the ride’s name along with the patriotic theme of the park. The cars didn’t feel like they could leave the ride at any time like they felt on the Pippin. But on this day, my body wasn’t ready to go through a corkscrew motion. As we rode the ride, I got sick at my stomach and although I threw up, I was able to contain my sickness. No one with me on the ride knew that I had gotten sick until we were walking down the path away from the exit of the ride. I leaned forward over the chain barrier that defined the path and spit out the contents of my mouth. My wife’s family was impressed. They said that no one was as cool when they were sick as me.
Libertyland closed in 2005. As of this writing, the Zippin Pippin has been moved to an amusement park in Wisconsin.
