PORTLAND — Oaks Park has weathered a lot of earth-shaking events over the last 115 years, but this year’s coronavirus pandemic is the first to completely cancel a season at the Southwest Portland amusement park.
The park announced Wednesday that its amusement park will not reopen in 2020, citing the ongoing pandemic and Oregon’s strict rules on allowing attractions to allow visitors back as COVID-19 continues to spread.
Oaks Park had hoped to reopen for a limited number of guests sometime this summer or fall, and had gone so far as to lobby Gov. Kate Brown’s office for an exemption to do so.
Amusement parks in Oregon are allowed to partially reopen under Phase 2 of the state’s reopening plan, but Multnomah County has been stuck in Phase 1 for months, and has yet to even apply for the next level.
Meanwhile, other attractions in Portland have been able to reopen, including the Oregon Zoo, Portland Japanese Garden and OMSI. Around the state, permission to reopen has been extended to the Enchanted Forest amusement park south of Salem and the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, though both have significant restrictions in place.
“We have made repeated efforts to convey to the state government our ability to operate with the same modifications that have been acceptable for the reopening of every other major, regional attraction in Oregon,” Oaks Park spokeswoman Emily MacKay said in the announcement. “Despite those efforts, we have continued to be excluded from the list of statewide attractions permitted to open.”
The season cancellation means that all rides, games and the miniature golf course will not reopen this year. Park owners still hope to partially reopen the roller rink and dance pavilion this fall, aiming to return to full operations in 2021.
Customers who have already purchased ride bracelets for 2020 will be able to use them during the next operating season, the park said. Organizers of events that will have to be canceled will be contacted with their options moving forward.
The grounds of Oaks Park, at least, will be open this weekend for outdoor roller skating sessions, an event hosted by Portland roller derby team the Rose City Rollers. Visitors will be able to skate through the shuttered amusement park, and can rent equipment at the Skatemobile van.
“[Roller skating] is having this amazing renaissance,” MacKay said earlier this month of the roller skating trend that has flourished during the pandemic. “At this point we just want to reopen anything that we can. We just want to have some fun.”
Oaks Park has long billed itself as the longest continually operating amusement park in the U.S., but that streak will now come to an end.
In its 115 year history, Oaks Park has at least partially operated through both world wars, the Great Depression and the 1918 flu pandemic. Its shortest season was in 1948, MacKay said, when the Vanport Flood decimated much of the area.
