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FM Borax Smith made his fortune in carving minerals, mainly borax, out of the Nevada desert. He then invested in trolley lines and real estate. In 1903, these two investments came together in one of the biggest and best amusement parks this side of the Rockies — at least thats what promoters said.

Smith and his Realty Syndicate needed an attraction to get people on their streetcars to Oakland. For the next 26 years, Idora Park filled the bill, bringing thousands of visitors to the walled-in park that covered about 20 acres from 56th to 58th streets between Shattuck and Telegraph avenues.

It was in April 1903 that Idora Park became home to Oakland baseball fans; by September of that year, it had become what the Oakland Tribune called an important factor in the amusement world on this side of the Bay. Vaudeville acts were appearing on stage, and moving pictures were shown every afternoon except Monday.

On April 14, 1903, the Tribune announced, Mr. Bigney, the famous diver, will dive 120 feet into a five-foot tank. In 1906, the park got its first roller coaster. There would be four others by the time it closed in 1929. Jack London brought his two little girls to Idora Park to ride the roller coasters.

The Oakland Tribune would hold annual Tribune Days at the park. In 1911, those attending Tribune Day could take a ride on Shoot the Rapids, watch an auto race, see a movie or try the roller skating rink, where it is

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The new Pleasure Pier

On the site of an iconic Galveston amusement park, construction for a new one is under way. In addition to a roller coaster and Ferris wheel that will extend over the surf, highlights are to include:

Family-oriented rides: The Pirates Plunge water ride for thrill-seekers and kiddie rides for the little ones.

Tourist staples: Food kiosks hawking many items, from hotdogs to funnel cake.

Souvenir shops: Numerous retail operations, including an old-fashioned candy store and gift shop.

Carnival games: Among them, darts, Whac-A-Mole and ball and ring tosses.

Special events: An entertainment stage, giant TV and barbecue pit at the back of the pier for special events and private parties.

With so much to accomplish, Red Tails has a lot on its plate dramatically speaking. One of the stars of the film, Cuba Gooding Jr., told MTV News recently that the film manages to find the right balance.

I think it strikes it in the subject matter, Gooding said. It didnt hurt that George Lucas spent the last quarter of a decade trying to get this story onto the big screen.

The fact that you have the story of these warriors, whose story has been suppressed up until this date except for smaller instances are finally getting their due, educating the audience of what African Americans did in the war effort in World War II … told by George Lucas, Star Wars, Gooding said. Youre going to see an amusement park ride.

Gooding concluded that all of those elements came together for a proper telling of the story. I think thats how you get the balance, he added. You get a filmmaker who is so passionate hes putting his own dough up to the tune of $100 million-plus. You see it on the screen.

RYE, N.Y. (AP) — Fifteen Muslims won conditional dismissals on Tuesday of charges stemming from an amusement park disturbance that started when women were told they could not wear religious headscarves on some rides.

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A Rye Town Court judge told the defendants that their cases would be dropped if they stayed out of trouble for two months. Most had been charged only with disorderly conduct, but the charges ranged up to second-degree assault.

All the female defendants wore headscarves.

Some of the defendants said after the court session that they planned to file a civil rights lawsuit against Westchester County, alleging police brutality and racism in the disturbance. The county owns Playland park in Rye, a national landmark, where the disturbance occurred.

Lamis Deek, a defense lawyer, said the defendants could have gone to trial and won acquittals, but trials would have been inconvenient because none of the defendants live in Westchester.

“It’s unfortunately more convenient to accept this offer, not have to enter a plea of guilty, move on with their lives and pursue this matter in a civil courtroom,” Ms. Deek said.

Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for the district attorney’s office, declined to comment on why the dismissals were accepted. Ms. Deek suggested that prosecutors felt they could not win convictions. She said the dismissals “speak loudly to what they think really happened.”

About 3,000 Muslims were at Playland on Aug. 30, celebrating the end of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month of fasting. Officials say Playland bans baseball caps, eyeglasses and other headgear on several rides for safety reasons.

County officials said at a hearing in September that some Muslim women who were wearing religious scarves known as hijabs objected when told they could not go on certain rides. They said the county had made the policy clear to the trip organizer, the Muslim American Society of New York.

They said dissatisfied patrons were being given refunds when scuffles broke out within the group. Ms. Deek said Tuesday that it was an argument just between two Muslim women.

The police were called, five people were arrested, and things began to calm down until a flash mob, summoned by texting, gathered rapidly outside the park police station, said Commissioner George Longworth of the county police. The crowd became unruly, and 10 more people were arrested.

Ms. Deek said the arrests were carried out with “a great deal of brutality,” injuring several Muslims.

“This is the result of stereotyping and racist ideologies and beliefs” toward Muslim communities, she said, “the idea that for some reason these Muslims would be more violent.”

Kieran O’Leary, a county police spokesman, said Tuesday that the arrests were “a lawful and necessary response to calm an escalating situation that could have put the safety of 6,000 Playland patrons at risk.”

WARREN – Warren G. Harding High School is among the schools scheduled to participate this year in the second annual Cedar Point KNEX Great Thrill Ride Build-Off.

Aaron Schwab, communication coordinator for Warren City Schools, said Harding students under the guidance of teacher Kristy Thornton will be creating a project to submit to the contest.

Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky and KNex Americas Building Toy Co. in Hatfield, Pa., have teamed up to create the thrill ride building contest for students in sixth to 12th grade.

Marissa Mendel, contest spokeswoman, said students will be create the rides using KNEX pieces.

She said the contest is intended to promote Cedar Points Math and Science Week and five school groups will be picked to display their model at Cedar Point. The winning projects will be on display through the parks operating season.

School groups are challenged to build the most innovative and thrilling amusement park ride model using only KNEX pieces, Mendel said, adding the contest provides an active learning experience.

The project is intended to encourage students to apply their knowledge of math and science in a fun and innovative way.

A group of KNEX designers and Cedar Point ride engineers and officials will choose five winners to exhibit their creations.

New in 2012, one of the five winners will be chosen by the public to be the Fan Favorite. The five winning models chosen by KNEX and Cedar Point will be posted at www.knex.com for the public to vote on. The Fan Favorite will receive a variety of additional prizes including behind-the-scenes tour of Cedar Point and an invitation to visit KNEX headquarters in Hatfield.

Mendel said in its inaugural year, the contest generated submissions from across the nation and the five winning schools were from Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Rob Decker, corporate vice president of planning and design at Cedar Point, said they were able to apply engineering, physics, social studies and language arts to mathematics.

To be eligible, students must consider mathematical and scientific applications such as potential and kinetic energy, speed, acceleration and gravity.

We were extremely impressed by the quality of rides submitted by the school groups last year. We look forward to seeing the unique and inspiring projects submitted for this years contest, Decker said.

School groups submit a 500 to 600 word description as well as a video and photos of the ride. Entries will be evaluated on creativity, uniqueness, detail and accuracy of the ride description.

Liev Schreiber had a few laughs yesterday (January 27th) as he toured Luna Amusement Park in Sydney, Australia with his two adorable sons 4-year-old Alexander Sasha Pete and 3-year-old Samuel Sammy Kai.

Accompanied by a nanny, the kids goofed around with painted cutouts before hitting up the rides. The park looks a bit creepy, but the boys didnt seem to mind. One thing is for sure, Liev and Naomi Watts have created some absolutely beautiful children together.

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Tennessee owns a $3.2 million one-of-a-kind carousel built in 1998 by world-famous artist Red Grooms that, sadly, is packed up and sitting uselessly in storage.

Hey, wait a minute. Gaylord Entertainment, owner of the defunct Opryland theme park, just announced a joint venture with country sensation Dolly Parton to build a water and snow theme park attraction on land across Briley Parkway from the sprawling hotel. Why doesn?t the state unpack the Tennessee Fox Trot Carousel, with its 36 whimsical and historical figurines, and lend it to the new park?

People have been wondering if, in addition to water slides and snow, the new park will have rides. This is one that hasn?t been ridden since 2003. It would enhance the park?s value. Tennessee would be providing the park an incentive that wouldn?t cost taxpayers money. The charming carousel could be placed in a protective pavilion and operated by people who know what they are doing.

And, most importantly, this incredible piece of artwork built with craft and love would once again be enjoyed by kids and grown-ups.

?No one has spoken about it but you so far,? Pete Owens, public relations manager at Dollywood, told me when I called. ?But we are in the design and development phase right now for the park. It would be interesting to take a look at the ride itself and the history, and to factor in whether it would work with this project.?

The new park will focus only on water and snow in the first phase, Owens said, but ?there will be entertaining elements to that. It?s not a theme park or an amusement park where you typically have rides, at least in phase one. But it?s an interesting opportunity.?

The carousel is now owned by the Tennessee State Museum, and museum officials are adamantly opposed to the idea: ?I know there is some thought about putting it at the Gaylord/Dollywood,? said Lois Riggins-Ezzell, executive director of the Tennessee State Museum.

Editors note: Mark Hinson is on a temporary break. Here is an updated version of an earlier For Amusement Purposes Only column.

My friend Dallas is a Marianna native and an engineer who recently finished a job building a fueling dock on Kodiak Island. Its off the coast of South Alaska. Tourist brochures call it Alaskas Emerald Isle. The locals call it The Rock, which is probably more honest than the Chamber of Commerces claims.

I get phone calls from Dallas on Saturday afternoons while he is waiting outside the local jail house to pick up his crew. The dock workers get paid on Fridays, hit the bars on Friday nights and, some of them, wake up in jail on Saturday mornings. Dallas is a good boss and bails them out in time for work on Saturday afternoons.

The other phone calls and emails I get from Dallas are not about boozy workers but about bears, which probably outnumber the humans on Kodiak Island about two to one. Bear attacks and maulings are pretty common around The Rock. Thats why stores sell a popular item called bear spray. Its a pressurized can of pungent pepper spray that blasts a 35-foot stream of the scalding concoction if youre ever mugged by one of our more rambunctious ursine friends.

So far, this is my favorite bear-related dispatch from my comrade in Kodiak:

One of Alaskas finest sons felt slighted at the BB Bar the other night because he was cut off. His answer was to go out to his truck, return with a can of bear spray in hand and soak down the bar. He was cornered by local police a few hours later and had his bear spray confiscated with a stern warning to go home. Our hero was so angered he had been turned in by someone at the bar that he went home, found another can of bear spray and returned to the scene of the crime. He sprayed everyone down again. He was subsequently arrested. The local paper covered the story and the famous quote was of a female patron who said, It almost ruined my night, I almost went home. 

The key word there is almost. Women are a heck of a lot tougher in the 49th state than they are here in the shoes-optional Sunshine State.

The Kodiak bears are also smart suckers. During hunting season, theyve learned that when they hear a rifle shot in the woods it means some outdoorsman has bagged a deer or a mountain goat or a fellow hunter. Its like ringing a dinner bell or turning on the Hot Now sign down at the Krispy Kreme. Then its a race between the bear and the hunter to see who gets to the meaty carcass first. Guess who wins that fight nine time out of 10?

Mr. Brando, is that you?

In the 80s, my father went on a fishing trip to Alaska with some of his buddies. His camping-and-canoeing partner was a dentist from Blountstown who was freaked out by bears, bear-like shapes, Yogi, Boo-Boo and anything else remotely ursine. If you have a phobia about grizzlies, Alaska is probably not the ideal vacation spot.

He felt we were being watched by bears, and they were preparing for an ambush, my father said in his Foghorn Leghorn-esque Southern accent. I finally got so (mumbled mild profanity) tired of it, I knew I had to do something.

My father had packed a brass whistle. Theres a long story about how he got the whistle from an English policeman, but its as convoluted as calculus. All you need to know is that my father convinced the dentist that grizzly bears had highly sensitive hearing and couldnt tolerate loud, shrill noises.

If you blow the whistle, the bear will be terrified and completely paralyzed, my father said. Of course, it was all a complete lie but he grabbed that whistle from me like a drowning man grabbing a life preserver.

Two nights later, my father and the dentist were asleep when something large began snuffling and digging just a few feet from their tent. And, no, it wasnt Marlon Brando.

I hoped and prayed he would stay asleep, but he didnt, my father said. Thats when the whistle split the night air. It was deafening.

At dawn, they emerged from their tent to find fresh bear tracks everywhere. There was also a rather impressive mound of bear scat. So that answers the age-old question about bears and their bowel habits.

The bear must have messed himself when he heard the whistle, my father said. Theres no question that the whistle actually worked. My friend was very cocky after that. You would have thought he defeated the bear in hand-to-hand combat.

Not long after the dentist whistled away the beast in the darkness, my father met an 80-year-old naturalist out in the wilderness who lived in the middle of a bear preserve. If you ever saw the Werner Herzog documentary Grizzly Man #x2014; about a delusional city-slicker who tried to live among the bears in Alaska before one of them had had enough and ate him #x2014; this guy was the opposite. He had great respect for the seven or eight grizzlies that roamed around his property and came in close contact. My father noticed he didnt have any weapons, or bear spray, or whistle.

What do you do if they get too close, my father asked the naturalist.

I carry a little switch around with me and pop them on the nose if they get out of line, he said. They dont like to be hit on the nose because its very sensitive.

Hey, thats the same thing my grandmother used to do to get my attention when I was a kid.

Leave the hamsters at home

So, as a public service brought to you by the fine makers of Sassy Tallahassee Molasses and Sunglasses, here are steps to follow to avoid getting a bear beat-down in the great outdoors:

bull; Dont wear underwear, gloves or socks made of salmon.

bull; Never drag huckleberries, honey, beef jerky, dandelions, smoked trout, hamsters, corn dogs, fiddle heads and small rodents into your tent.

bull; Dont camp near a garbage dump where bears like to scavenge. Yes, this includes your roommates bedroom and most Drive-Thru Taco Taverns.

bull; Never make direct eye contact with an angry or startled bear. The same rule applies for encounters with Glenn Beck on the street.

bull; Dont turn and run from a bear. Stand your ground, recite Robert Lowell poetry aloud, douse yourself with charcoal lighter and set yourself aflame. Bears hate the smell and the sound of sizzling human flesh mixed with confessional poetry.

bull; Never give piggy-back rides to bear cubs.

bull; Dont taunt a bear if it appears disoriented, smells of Ezra Brooks bourbon and is wearing a black and white houndstooth-check hat. This is most likely the ghost of University of Alabama football coach Paul William Bear Bryant.

bull; Never agitate some drunken dude wielding an oversized can of $45 bear spray. Just buy him another Jagermeister Car Bomb cocktail and dial a cab.

#x2014; Contact senior writer Mark Hinson at (850) 599-2164 or mhinson@tallahassee.com.

Gov. Chris Christie signed into law Tuesday a bill that exempts amusement parks and carnival rides from noise restriction rules.

Before the bill was signed, amusement parks and carnival rides were subject to the Noise Control Act of 1971, which empowers the state Department of Environmental Protection to set commercial noise limits at 50 decibels between 10 pm and 7 am and 65 decibels during the day. The act also allowed municipalities to adopt more stringent noise ordinances.

The bill, S-2850, which was sponsored by Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, and Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, also exempts beach bars. The bill was co-sponsored by former Sen. Andrew Ciesla, R-Ocean.

Van Drew said he sponsored the bill to address the needs of older beachside amusement areas that have become surrounded by residential communities through more recent development booms. Many members of the newer communities then complain about the noise from existing establishments, he said.

Boardwalks and amusement parks are ?an integral part of the Shore,? Van Drew said. ?They shouldn?t be penalized (for residential encroachment.)?

The bill only applies to existing amusement parks, said Van Drew. New parks or additions would be subject to the 1971 act, he said.

Under the law, a carnival operator must continue to maintain and lubricate the rides to minimize noise.

Jenkinson?s Boardwalk at 300 Ocean Ave. in Point Pleasant Beach is a member of the New Jersey Amusement Association, which supported the bill.

?The association was in favor of the original bill, which included amusement parks (and carnivals). Beach bars were added in an amendment,?? Marilou Halvorsen, the director of marketing at Jenkinson?s said Tuesday afternoon.

?Our organization supports it,?? Halvorsen added.

Seaside Heights officials applauded the move.

?I think the governor is doing the right thing. We are dealing with a lot of businesses that are projecting out by the ocean so the noise is minimal,?? Police Chief Thomas Boyd said.

?The governor is trying to build up business in New Jersey so that we don?t lose any more people. He?s on the right track,?? Boyd added.

Borough Mayor William Akers agreed.

?It is definitely positive for Seaside Heights and helps the police department,?? Akers said.

?It puts our police in a better position to enforce our local noise ordinances because it exempts the amusement areas,?? Akers said. ?We fully support it.??

To the north, Keansburg Amusement Park and Runaway Rapids Water Park co-owner William Gehlhaus said the law will be beneficial.

?We try not to make too much noise, and so far it?s been pretty good,? Gehlhaus said.

Six Flags Great Adventure spokeswoman Kristin Siebeneicher said the Jackson-based park aims to end its firework displays, concerts and special events by 10 pm

In the past five years, ?we have not received any concerns regarding noise from our neighbors or the surrounding communities,? said Siebeneicher. ?We are extremely mindful of our neighbors.?

Clint Brewer, a spokesman for that department, said the state gives FastTrack grants to local governments to reimburse them for costs to help companies with infrastructure or job training assistance that?s tied directly to economic development. Job training is not being discussed in this case.

Grants up to $750,000 can be approved by the Department of Economic and Community Development alone, Brewer said. Higher amounts must win additional approval from the State Funding Board.

How much help the water and snow park will need isn?t known yet, he said.

?There are no numbers yet just simply because they?re still working through what the needs might be based on the footprint of the project. We?re still in discussion with the company about what the project would look like. We?ve certainly committed to working with them on the project.?

The Tennessee Department of Transportation also could get involved, but it hasn?t been given much information about the plans yet, spokeswoman BJ Doughty said.

Costs to build interchanges vary widely depending on the need for road widening and other factors, said Deanna Lambert, another TDOT spokeswoman. She gave three examples completed in the past 10 years: $30 million for the McEwen Drive interchange on Interstate 65 in Williamson County; $12 million for the Beckwith Road exit on Interstate 40 in Wilson County; and $5 million for the South Hartman Drive interchange, also on I-40 in Wilson County.

Gauging the impact

LeRoy said any claims about a park?s ?downstream? economic impact and its ability to draw people from far and wide should be evaluated carefully. He said the jobs they create tend to be in the ?low-end service sector,? so workers don?t have much of the buying power that can create other jobs in the community.

?Unless the theme park jobs are unionized, you get really low ripple effects downstream because the jobs tend to be low-wage, low-benefit ? if any benefits,? he said.

But LeRoy said the combination of snow and water attractions would give the planned facility a leg-up on most amusement parks, where jobs tend to be seasonal.

Gaylord and Dollywood said the park, expected to open by the summer of 2014, would represent just the first phase of a 50/50 joint venture near Gaylord?s Opryland Resort Convention Center. They didn?t say what later phases might include, but Parton indicated they?re open to ideas.

?We hope that some other developers with great ideas will join us for phase two of this project,? the singer, songwriter and actress said in a news release. ?We?re saying the water and snow park are the first phase, but who knows, if we see some great ideas we could be developing the entire zone by the time the snow and water park open. Wouldn?t that be great for Nashville and the state??