Jessie James Territory

[Junior]

In the days of Route 66, (Late '60's and early '70's) there was a tiny little theme park at Sullivan, Missouri called Jessie James Territory. I was a kid growing up in the north St. Louis County suburbs, and Cliff St. James, the weather man at Channel 5 KSD, had a kids show on Saturday mornings called Corky's Colorama. St. James, (Corky the Clown) made several appearances at Jessie James Territory. I got to meet him there and shake his hand. The park consisted of a gravel parking lot, a ticket booth, then you walked down a gravel path to a train station, boarded a miniature train, it carried you through the woods to an old west style town square. That was Jessie James Territory. The town square was just gravelled, not paved, and there were maybe a half dozen crafts shops, an ice cream parlor, a church and boot hill cemetery. There was a small museum that had old wood working and other types of tools. The entertainment consisted of gun fights with Jessie James and his gang, and a hanging. I seem to remember the outlaws always shot the noose in half and rescued their gang member before he got hung. I have vivid memories of this theme park, because my cousing, Glenn, worked there! He played the undertaker, who measured you for a coffin. (Does the description of this park sound similar to another theme park just down below Springfield that has a mountain village theme?) Anyone else remember Jessie James Territory? Comments? I remember when the interstate was built it ran just in front of the old parking lot and ticket booth.

[sdcforever]

I have never heard of Jesse James Territory and Pioneer Village before.  I did a brief search and didn't find much online about it, either.  Do you have any photos or any more specifics about the park itself?  I'm curious.  All I could really find in the way of memorabilia is this old postcard.

[Junior]

The only thing I remember taking away from Jessie James Territory other than childhood memories are some photos. My dad took tons of photos that were developed into slides. He had a projector and several boxes of family photos that he would drag out everytime we had family or friends over. When my parents divorced in the mid 70's, he took all the slides with him. He moved to Times Beach, MO to a little house along the river there. There was a flood, and everything was lost. One other memory I do have of Jessie James Territory. They had a "gunslinger" in a building that you could fast draw on. You put a quarter or fifty cents into a slot, pointed your pistol at a target on the gunslinger, and you won if you beat him when his arm flung up from his holster. Same kind of technology the Flooded Mine probably uses with the guns and targets today. Probably a light beam emitted from the gun when you pulled the trigger and then shown on the target on the mechanical dummy that was dressed as a gunslinger.

[saladdays]

Is Sullivan also where they used to have the Jesse James Wax Museum?

[rubedugans]

Close...The Wax Museum is actually in Stanton MO about 10 minutes away I think. It is located at the Meramec Caverns Exit on Hwy 44.

http://www.jessejameswaxmuseum.com/visitors_blog.php
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2141

[saladdays]

So it's still there I guess?  I suppose I just never pay attention to it anymore.

[Junior]

Jessie James Territory has been defunct since the early '70's. Six Flags Over Mid America, now known as Six Flags St. Louis, is just down the road a few miles at Allenton/Eureka, and it killed JJT when it opened in 1973. Six Flags also killed the popular Chain of Rocks amusement park in north St. Louis County. Type in Chain of Rocks Park as a keyword and do a search on the Internet and you will probably come upwith some interesting photos. Just north of the old park was Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi River, and there were two very odd looking stone structures in the river that, I think, were once used to collect water for the city of St. Louis. Jessie James Territory in the late '70's and throughout the 80's was just like the abandoned Dogpatch park, a place for vandals to tear up. The ticket booth fell into disrepair and collapsed years ago, the parking lot is grown up in weeds and I'd bet you would never know it was there. My guess is the buildings in JJT are pretty much gone now, too.

[rubedugans]

I have a co-worker in Sulliavan, one in St Clair, as well as a few old friends, I am going to check out what they might know. Unfortunately the location is the biggest piece of this puzzle that has yet to come out...I am gonna look around in my spare time. Besides it is at the most 1 hour away from me.

[Junior]

If memory serves me, JJT was located immediately north and west of Sullivan. It was on the north side of the interstate. The town has probably grown in the last thirty or forty years, and the property may be within city limits now.

[tinmann620]

I started a group on facebook, Defunct Amusement, Theme, & Trolley Parks of the Ozarks.  Any of you that are on fb & have info, please add it! For anyone interested, you can view info of more than 100 parks I've come across so far, and would love any new info.  Thanks!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?v=wall&gid=230481631273

[Swoosh]

^http://www.rcdb.com will be your friend to find defunct parks

[tinmann620]

Thanks! But sadly, they only have 14 listed for Missouri, I have 37, already...    

[rubedugans]

I have extensively covered Chain of Rocks Park in North St Louis County MO. I will have to post some things. I used to belong to a site that would go to old abandoned sites around MO
 (there is a wealth of information here for defunct locations. I, as many of the other members of the site do not break and enter, nor do we tag/vandalize locations. We explore what the places once were before it is lost for ever. A few might go about accessing locations in an illegal/negative way, but that is only a small portion of the people, and we do not like to be associated with those people!)
Here is a link to my post about the park.(please note I am not responsible for all the info/postings, just the photos!)
http://www.undergroundozarks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2977&highlight=chain+rocks

[Swoosh]

Thanks! But sadly, they only have 14 listed for Missouri, I have 37, already...    

Oh, well most real parks have coasters so I guess that's what they count. 

[Junior]

Nice shots of Chain of Rocks. My family lived in north St. Louis County in the 1960's and early '70's and Chain of Rocks was the park my elementary school spring picnics were held at. It was a decaying and worn out park by that time. I remember a walk through and a ride through haunted house. There was a skylife along the bluff. A mad mouse roller coaster was another favorite of mine, and a small ferris wheel, too. My dad always took us to our grandparents farm in southern Illinois by crossing old Chain of Rocks Bridge. I used to imagine the large stone water towers in the river were castles. There were several picnic pavilions, and a nice, shady park just south of the amusement park. When Six Flags opened, Chain of Rocks quickly slid into it's casket and died within just a few years. When Six Flags opened in '72 or '73, my elementary school switched the annual picnic to it.