The nightmare has ended.
Those were the words of a Kennywood Park staffer who announced Monday through a Facebook video that the park is getting rid of Garfield’s Nightmare and bringing back the original Old Mill this season.
The wooden boat ride that has been taking visitors through a dark narrow channel since 1901 has been through seven name changes — the latest transformation coming in 2004 when the children’s-themed Garfield’s Nightmare 3-D experience was born.
The video announcement gave a brief history of the Old Mill, which is the longest running ride in the park even after surviving a fire in the 1920s.
In its first two decades, the ride underwent several transformations — the Old Mill, then Fairyland Floats, then the Panama Canal, then the Rapids Gorge before returning to Fairyland Floats and back to the Old Mill. In the 1970s, Kennywood changed the ride into Hardheaded Harold’s Horrendously Humorous Haunted Hideaway but it again made it back to its Old Mill roots in the ’90s.
The Old Mill of the new decade will revert to its classic retro Western theme, but the park said it’s adding new features to appeal to younger riders.
Kennywood spokesperson Nick Paradise said they expect the ride to be ready by the start of the season “or very soon thereafter.”
The announcement came just a day after Kennywood said it was also bringing back the large floral clock that had to be torn down in 2017 to make way for the expansion of Thomas Town.
After several seasons of busy construction — including building the Steel Curtain — park officials decided 2020 was the best ... time ... to bring back the clock, Mr. Paradise said.
The park announced the floral clock’s return on its Facebook page Sunday to coincide with Daylight Savings.
“We always had plans to bring the floral clock back,” Mr. Paradise said. “It’s just one of those nice aesthetic pieces that our visitors love.”
Park-goers will be able to visit the clock in the Kennyville area, near the Potato Patch and Turtle ride.
Mr. Paradise said the structure will be finished by the time Kennywood opens to the general public on May 2, but all flowers may not be in full bloom right away, as they plan to wait to start planting until after frost season.
Alexis Johnson: ajohnson@post-gazette.com and Twitter @alexisjreports
First Published: March 9, 2020, 3:00 p.m.
Updated: March 9, 2020, 6:02 p.m.