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All the United States New Mexico Albuquerque Little Beaver Town

Little Beaver Town

An abandoned amusement park based on the popular 1940s Red Ryder comic strip.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Added By
Eirik Gumeny
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A staged gunfight at Little Beaver Town, 1961.   ABQ MUSEUM PHOTOARCHIVES
Remnants of a Little Beavertown wall.   Eirik Gumeny / Atlas Obscura User
Little Beaver Town foundation, now Route 66 Open Space.   Eirik Gumeny / Atlas Obscura User
A dirt lot in what was previously Little Beaver Town parking lot.   Eirik Gumeny / Atlas Obscura User
Red Ryder and Little Beaver portrayed by actors Dave Saunders and Troy Vincenti at Little Beaver Town, 1961.   ABQ MUSEUM PHOTOARCHIVES
A gunfight for the crowds at Little Beaver Town.   ABQ MUSEUM PHOTOARCHIVES
In front of Fred Harman’s Cartoon Studio at Little Beaver Town.   ABQ MUSEUM PHOTOARCHIVES
Presumably remnants of a pillar at the old entrance   curiosity / Atlas Obscura User
The ghost of a forgotten theme park   mikewalker / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The infamous Red Ryder BB gun from A Christmas Story was named for Red Ryder, a cowboy comic strip character of the mid 20th century. The syndicated strip was so popular it even had its own amusement park briefly, but today it couldn't even be called a ghost town.

Fred Harman and Stephen Slesinger invented "America's famous fighting cowboy" in 1938. Thanks to the popularity of Westerns, the strip quickly evolved into a multimedia empire, with comic books, radio, and more than 35 movies and serials, not to mention toys, lunchboxes, and guns.

The stories centered around the cowpoke Red Ryder and his young Native American sidekick, Little Beaver. To today's viewers, the Indian boy and his pidgin English are an offensive caricature, but in the 1940s people couldn’t get enough.

By the late 1950s though, the Red Ryder's popularity was waning along with the rest of the Western genre. Fred Harman, the comic’s artist and an Albuquerque resident, was undeterred. In an attempt to mimic the explosive success of Disneyland, Harman decided the time was right to build a Western-themed amusement park based on the Red Ryder characters in his booming hometown.

Catering to exotic fantasies of the Old West, Little Beaver Town opened in July of 1961 along Route 66 on the eastern border between Albuquerque and Carnuel. One-half was set up as an American Indian village, complete with teepees and Apache eagle dancers. The other half was a Western town that featured the Red Bull Saloon, an art gallery featuring Harmon's original drawings, and plenty of places to buy souvenirs. Visitors had their choice of a ride in a stagecoach or an old fashioned steam train chugging on the outskirts of town. Shootouts between Red Ryder and Ace Hanlon occurred at regular intervals throughout the day.

Sadly, both the comic strip and Little Beaver Town folded in 1964. The amusement park briefly changed its name to Sage City and rented itself out as a film set and venue for rock and roll concerts. This didn’t stick either, and the park was soon abandoned. Over time, the Western town was defaced, damaged, and burnt to the ground.

In 2010, 50 years after Little Beaver Town’s heyday, the City of Albuquerque purchased the property and renamed it the Route 66 Open Space, adding it to the city’s expansive land conservation effort. Despite a handful of volunteer-led cleanups and plans for a system of hiking trails, nothing substantial has been done with the property. Little Beaver Town exists today as nothing but an empty lot of curious concrete foundations, littered with broken glass and unchecked cacti, waiting like the highway it sits on for another chance at glory.

Related Tags

Old West Cowboys Cartoons Comic Books Native Americans Racism Amusement Parks Abandoned Amusement Parks Ghost Towns Film Locations Wild West

Know Before You Go

Along Central Ave. (Route 66/NM 333) east of Tramway Blvd., between Believers Center of Albuquerque and the town of Carnuel, just past Carmellia Dr. There's a tiny dirt lot, a gate, and a single Open Space sign.

Community Contributors

Added By

Eirik Gumeny

Edited By

Molly McBride Jacobson, Blindcolour, Collector of Experiences, mikewalker...

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • Blindcolour
  • Collector of Experiences
  • mikewalker
  • curiosity

Published

April 11, 2017

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Sources
  • https://www.cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/documents/JANUARY-MARCH%202015.pdf
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ryder
  • http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Beaver
  • http://www.dukecityfix.com/profiles/blogs/little-beaver-town-or-what-s-left-of-it-is-still-open-for
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoTveFJTsTA
  • http://www.b-westerns.com/rryder.htm
Little Beaver Town
14095-14481 NM-333
Albuquerque, New Mexico
United States
35.064709, -106.487707
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