Reliving The Beauty Of Orange County’s Atlantis Park

Atlantis Play Center Orange County Garden Grove

Atlantis Park was a colloquial name from Garden Grove’s government for an open space that spanned 4 acres, punctuated with nautical-themed and stunningly haunting play structures. So, it was renamed to the present Atlantis Play Center back in the 1980s or 1990s with no official vote or fanfare to speak of. The beige stone structure at the park’s gated entry, around the Magnolia Street and Westminster Boulevard intersection, preserves the memory of that name.

The change would usually be accepted as a case of subtle rebranding, but it was quite significant. An example of a kind of cultural milestone, it appeared that the park was starting to perform well as it got a place in the list of cool OC locations to visit. Anyhow, the phrase play center appears cold, corporate, and boring, whereas the term park evokes images of endless exploration, summer pleasures, and freedom.

After many makeovers, the area of interest has maintained a balance between practicality and wonderment. No other parks in OC boast a big, green retro dragon slide, at the same time as accepting orderly bookings for a yearly Eastertide egg hunt game. The dragon slide is the centerpiece attraction of the OC park. Its King Neptune Pavilion also hosts birthday bashes; you could reserve a spot in the pavilion if you contact far enough beforehand.

Some 30 years before its rebranding move, the park was a Jack Wallin creation. A former Garden Grove parks superintendent, Wallin was brave in offering the growing middle-class people in the city something except for a space full of prefab play structures with no distinguishing characteristics. Those structures were beginning to be present in Orange County’s post-war suburban parks, so people termed them cookie-cutter.

One of the first things that Atlantis Play Center’s visitors see is Wallin’s head sculpture. The recently-deceased Wallin’s vision for this venue was distinct, and he commissioned his fellow workers at Garden Grove city to aid in overseeing the construction. As per an old LA Times story, Wallin and Gene Rotsch wished to build something creative from a lot of asphalt on a vacated federal airstrip. The park was not fully in line with Southern California’s ethos concerning urban planning. That was what caused the park to be so cool.

To fulfill the vision, Rotsch and his subordinate Wallin leveraged the talents of Mexican artist Benjamin Dominguez. The earlier park work of that young artist included venues in Las Vegas, Whittier Narrows, and San Gabriel. All of his parks were decorated with stunning fantasy sculptures so unlike the linear and rigid play areas elsewhere. That is why several individuals regarded those as irreverent sculptures.

When it opened in 1963, the park proudly displayed ‘Sandy the Sea Serpent’, ‘Wally the Whale’, and a group of seahorses. As per the present OSHA regulations, those could not be created. The park also has the so-called ‘Viking Ship’. That structure lacks harmony with the theme of Atlantis, but it is nautical. The amounts of money donated by Garden Grove Parks and Recreation’s workers were used for the OC park construction process.

The central attraction of this park is still the big, winding slide called ‘Danny’. Around ‘Danny the Sea Dragon’ is the oceanic creatures among the many-layered landscaping, near walkways that add to their overall prestige. It has an up and down form from the peak of an ordinary hill, below a thick tree canopy, and into an old, covered sandpit. That is what causes people to describe it as an equal-parts thrill ride and fantasy. Coated with a kind of old epoxy and made from cement, the slide’s painted eyes and green hue are still iconic.

OC was undergoing a demographic change in the ’70s and ’80s, just like the parks situated in the county. Plastic monoliths were used in place of corrugated metal spinning platforms as well as metal-based rocket ships. Those were not all that interesting but were safer. Atlantis Park’s infrastructure never changed, but rules started to be posted. One of those rules was a prohibition on waxed paper. 

Children used to enter the park with carefully folded and torn waxed paper pieces tucked into their Toughskins jeans or OP shorts. When they reached the slide’s top, the kids used to unfold their paper pieces, put those on the installation, sit atop that and go down the slide. The waxed paper offered the right level of increase in speed down the green chute. The acceleration was enough to make them think that they would escape punishment with something. The funny thing was that they did get away with it.

Such things, besides fireworks and weapons, are prohibited at the park nowadays. Anyhow, it is still an outlier as compared to modern public parks. It is very popular among those who live in the county and who host many events right through the year, such as Jack O’Lantern Jamboree to name one. Like what Wallin intended to do, it is a creative item that emerges from much asphalt. It would be creative even without wax paper.

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