I’m working on Journey to the Center of the Earth now. It was a 1927 PTC Mill Chute remodeled by the late Bill Tracy in 1960. He was from NJ and passed away Aug 1974. His partners and employees continued the company through the late 70’s as This Is, Inc. and Jim Melonic renamed it Fantasies and Dreams then JMM Studios. For the Journey I’m using the Cascade boat ride since it is the closest to a mill chute ride. The Journey boats kind of looked like speedboats and the Cascade ones look close. It had twisting dark caves with scenes of explorers meeting grisly fates then a lift and drop into a pool of water at the end. I rode it many times from the late 70’s to August 1992. Cedar Fair bought the park in July 1992. The Journey was razed in fall 1992. Playland in NY and Kennywood still have old mills without a lift and drop and Lake Winnie in northern GA has the last mill chute with a drop into a lake. Just a dark tunnel, no scenes. It’s called Boat Chute. They also had a Bill Tracy Whacky Shack walkthrough and a dark ride called The Castle with a better facade originally. Now it was redone as Wacky Factory and not dark inside and everything in neon colors.
