Abandoned Theme Park: Mother Goose Land

Mother Goose Land is an abandoned theme park with just a few remaining pieces of the original park, including the amazing Willy The Whale. Willy the Whale is a large cartoon whale you can walk inside! He is officially my most favorite roadside attraction and abandoned spot.

Mother Goose Land and Willy The Whale
Location: City Field Park, 1500 block of Tuscarawas St W, Canton, OH 44702
Part of City Field Park has been made into Willy’s Dog Park.
Free to visit.

We have been on the hunt for some sort of abandoned theme park for a long while. So I was very surprised when we found out there is one INSIDE the city where Jamie’s mother just moved! Mother Goose Land is now a public city park that you can visit free of charge and with no concern of trespassing. Which is awesome  because a lot of abandoned theme parks I’ve seen online are not this easily accessible.

The history of Mother Goose Land is well documented online. Here is some information from the official Facebook page.

The park opened in 1956 and remained open into the 80s. After the park closed, it fell into disrepair and many of the cast-iron characters were sold at auction (Dorothy and other characters from The Wizard of Oz can now be found at Sluggers & Putters in Canal Fulton). A portion of the park was sold to U.S. Technology Corp and the only remaining attraction is Willy the Whale, who was too cumbersome to remove.

In recent years, the Canton Parks Department has revitalized the remaining land and paid tribute to the old amusement park by commissioning a wall mural by local artist Steve Ehret. Willy the Whale has also been spruced up with a fresh paint job and plays host to the city’s first dog park – Willy’s Dog Park.

According to this article, that revitalization of the park began in 2013 and was unveiled on May 2, 2014 with that really awesome mural (see below), the new paint job of Willy The Whale and the dog park. I was living for the style of the art work around the park. The mural has a sort of creepy whimsy that I really love. I found the Instagram of the artist Steve Ehret (go follow him here) and his other stuff is an even darker creepy whimsy and I love it too.

The mural pays homage to a lot of the original attractions that Mother Goose Land housed. The first photo is of the whole mural – it’s huge!!

The day we went was a pretty cold day for March, so Jamie & Matthew went back to the car and I walked the length of the mural.

And here’s a little more art by the entrance.

By the way, if you’re thinking this doesn’t really count as an abandoned spot because it’s been revitalized, tell that to Willy the Whale…

Everything about this place was kinda creepy and really cool and I’m so glad we went! Here are the rest of our photos.

There’s a blow hole!

I’m not sure if these were from the original park or not…

Have you been inside Willy the Whale? We’d love to see! Use our hashtag #unicornhideout or tag us @unicornhideout on Instagram or Facebook. And follow us while you’re there!

Want to see some more roadside attractions? Click here!

PS: If you want to see what Mother Goose Land looked like in its glory days – here are two videos I found on YouTube. The official Facebook page (linked above) also has a lot of old photos.