Old Mill (ride)

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Fata Morgana at Efteling in the Netherlands.

An old mill is a type of amusement park ride with unaccompanied boats floated on guideways through dark tunnels. These themed dark rides originated in the late 19th century and are known by a variety of names, including tunnel of love and river cave. While generally considered a gentle ride, a variation that ends with a climactic splashdown, similar to the modern-day log flume, is known as a mill chute.

Tunnel of love[]

In its earliest incarnations, riders were taken by two-passenger boats through dark passages. There were two major themes: a relaxing romantic ride encouraging the couple to cuddle, or a spooky horror ride encouraging the couple to cling to one another. The darkness provided a degree of privacy and the frightening scenes offered a socially acceptable excuse for the physical contact at a time when public affection or even holding hands was considered inappropriate.

With the development of other socially acceptable opportunities and less stigma for unmarried couples to engage in physical contact, these rides became less popular and were either re-themed into children's attractions or torn down completely.

River caves[]

Riders travel slowly on themed boats along an artificial river that meanders through decorated caves and tunnels featuring different themed scenes of lighting, sounds, props, animatronics, or other visual effects. The boats drift along on a gentle current, typically generated by a paddle wheel. This type of amusement ride became relatively common at amusement parks across the UK and the USA in the mid-20th century. The concept of the river cave is also very similar to those of the early scenic railways in that they attempt to be both educational and entertaining.

Once a popular feature of many amusement parks, river caves are now relatively rare and can be found in only a few locations, mainly in the UK and United States. Despite their popularity in the early to mid-20th century, the shift in focus to the thrill ride in the latter half of the 20th century onwards and the sheer age of the design and mechanics of these rides means that many have been dismantled and sold or destroyed altogether.

The ride's name stems from the fact that most were themed around caverns, with styrofoam stalagmites and stalactites housing detailed displays from around the world, through time and from myth and legend.

Mill chute[]

A "mill chute" is a variation of the old mill, featuring roller coaster-like drops at the end, in which riders get soaked. The major difference between the old mill and the mill chute is that the mill chute contains a drop at the end. Mill chutes have the same-styled grottos and caverns as old mills. Mill chutes were mainly manufactured in the 1920s and 1930s, while old mills were mainly manufactured in the late 19th century through the 1930s. Though old mills have drops, they are not as steep as the last drop on a mill chute (hence the name "chute"). The last drop on a mill chute ride is typically steeper than its first drop: though it is typical on roller coasters to have the steepest first drop, water rides have fiercer endings. The mill chute is considered the predecessor to the modern-day log flume.

Notable installations[]

Name	Location	Opened	Closed	Designer	Notes
Old Mill Ride	Sea Lion Park, Coney Island	1895	1902	Paul Boyton	[a]
Old Mill	Kennywood Park	1901			[b]
Old Mill	Rocky Glen Park	1904	Circa 1913	Frederick Ingersoll
River Caves	Blackpool Pleasure Beach	1905
Shoot The Chutes	Rocky Glen Park	1906	Circa 1913	Frederick Ingersoll
The Red Mill	Luna Park, Coney Island	1907	1944		[c]
River Caves	Pleasureland Southport	1908	2004	Helters Ltd	[d]
Ye Old Mill	Minnesota State Fair	1915			[e]
Ye Old Mill	Kansas State Fair	1915
Kärlekstunneln	Gröna Lund	1917			[f]
Old Mill (Shooting the Rapids)	Seabreeze Amusement Park	1920	Circa 1940	John A. Miller
Ye Old Mill	Iowa State Fair	1921			[g]
River Cave	Dreamland Margate	1924	1984
Tokio Canal	Rocky Glen Park	1924	1950	John A. Miller	[h]
Boat Chute	Lake Winnepesaukah	1927		Carl O. Dixon	[i]
Journey to the Center of the Earth	Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom	1927	1992		[j]
Mill Chute / Lost River	Hersheypark	1929	1972	Philadelphia Toboggan Company	[k]
Old Mill	Rye Playland	1929			[l]
It's a Small World	Disneyland	1966		Walt Disney Imagineering	[m]
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros/El Rio del Tiempo	Epcot	1982	2007	Walt Disney Imagineering	[n]

Table notes

In popular culture[]

In the 1928 film The Crowd, a tunnel of love is featured in which the sides are voyeuristically pulled down at a place where couples are likely to be kissing. The 1951 Alfred Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train features a tunnel of love ride that becomes the scene of a murder.^[6]

The tunnel of love was a favorite source of amusing scenes in Hanna-Barbera television series such as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo, among others, often in a chase sequence gag in which rivals or combatants are shown entering the ride, then exiting in a romantic embrace. The tunnel of love has also been used in Disney cartoons, mainly a jealous Donald Duck storming the tunnel by foot and ruining the ride for a rival suitor and Daisy Duck.

In 1980, Dire Straits released a single entitled "Tunnel of Love" from their album Making Movies. Bruce Springsteen recorded an album called Tunnel of Love in 1987 and a song of the same name.^[7]

A 1990 episode of the TV series 21 Jump Street was called "Tunnel of Love".

A tunnel of love is seen in a 1996 episode of Hey Arnold! called Operation Ruthless. A tunnel of love is also seen in a 2008 episode of The Simpsons called Love, Springfieldian Style. A tunnel of love is seen in a 2010 episode of the show American Dad! called "May the Best Stan Win" and a tunnel of love is seen in a 2011 episode of the show SpongeBob SquarePants called "Tunnel of Glove".

In the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, an alternative future story published in 1986 that features the Batman supervillain Joker fighting with Batman in a tunnel of love and manages, after putting the superhero into a fit of rage, to frame Batman for murder of the Joker.

Gallery[]

• 

  "The River Caves of the World" at Pleasure Beach, Blackpool

• 

  Riverview Park, Chicago

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Old Mill (ride).

• Log flume (ride)
• Tow boat ride
• Dark ride
• List of incidents at independent amusement parks

References[]

External links[]

• Demolition pictures of Dorney Park Old Mill