Post by Robert K on Feb 20, 2005 1:01:23 GMT -5
I know William C. Hunt who started Hunt's Pier died in July, 1970 from reading it in the Wildwood book, and his son Guy Hunt died mid-70's, but do you know what happened to William "Bud" Hunt, Guy's brother who ran Hunt's Pier through 1985 when he sold it to investors, the ones who 3 years later started the dismemberment of the Hunt's Pier we knew and loved in 1989. Did he pass away, if he did what year? There's an article from a newspaper on www.mrboardwalk.net about the Flyer demolition in 1989 and it mentioned Hunt was 83 years old then. I would say 1989 was the beginning of the end of Hunt's Pier, New Hunt's '89-'90 Conko's Party Pier '91 looked like carnival rides even though they still had 4 of the original rides, Keystone Kops, Hunt's Horror (former Whacky Shack), Golden Nugget, and Log Flume. Dinosaur Beach was a joke. 1999, 10 years after the demise of the "old Hunt's" was the final nail in the coffin when Morey's bought the pier and turned it into one big go-kart track and closed the Golden Nugget. That's the pier at it's lowest state since it opened in 1957. The Log Flume was dismantled in 2001 and operates today at Arnold's Park, Iowa. The Nugget operated continuously from 1960-1991 then closed certain years in the 90's like 1992, 1995, 1999 and beyond. It was open in 93, 94, 96, 97, and 98. The 90's was the first decade that the Nugget ever closed for a whole summer.
