Tourist Trap Tees, based in Oklahoma, is releasing a new T-shirt featuring a Mother Road legend from Illinois.
This one is the Whoopee Coaster of Lyons (also known as the Whoopie Coaster) — a long wooden structure basically designed as a roller coaster for cars.
Living History of Illinois has a nice summary of this short-lived attraction:
A unique ride of the times, the Whoopie Auto Coaster, opened in July, 1929, in the southwest suburb of Lyons. It was a wooden track built in an undulating, ‘hill-and-dale’ style; patrons paid an admission fee to drive their own cars over this track, approximating the thrills of a roller coaster. Located at 47th Street and Lawndale Avenue, the Lyons Whoopie track was built and owned by the Coaster Construction Company, which had similar tracks in Kansas City, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Seattle. In partnership with a local businessman named John Skale, the company announced it would build a full scale park on 23 acres surrounding the track; plans called for the erection of ‘practically every kind of device… found in up-to-date amusement parks.
It seemed a good idea at first. Car ownership had boomed throughout the Twenties. Yet, after a couple weeks operation, the novelty of the Whoopie Coaster wore off; then, it was necessary to stimulate patronage by giving two or more rides around the track for a single admission. And after the stock market crash that October, drivers would become much more cautious about wear and tear on their cars. It was soon evident that the Whoopie track was a one-season wonder. By 1930, the Lyons track had closed, its proposed full-scale park never built.
With current liability laws and building codes, it’s probably impossible for such a thing to exist today.
Tourist Trap Tees also has shirts inspired by Rimmy Jim’s Trading Post in Arizona, the Tri-State Spooklight in Oklahoma, the Red Ghost of Arizona, and the Regal Reptile Ranch in Texas (shown above). Each of the shirt’s links explain the history behind the legends.
(Image of the Whoopee Coaster T-shirt courtesy of Joel Rayburn)