Remember these Miami roadside attractions and theme parks? See what they looked like
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Remember the Crandon Park Zoo? The Serpentarium? Pirates World? Six Flags Atlantis?
Ever hear of Pioneer City and Tropical Panorama?
They are among the long-lost roadside attractions of South Florida.
Roadside attractions are not totally gone from the scene. Matter of fact, Skunk Ape Headquarters in the Everglades was ranked the No. 2 best one in the country.
But since Walt Disney World opened in the early 1970s, more and more of the smaller theme parks around Florida have become just memories.
Let’s take a look at some of the old attractions through the photo archives of the Miami Herald:
Serpentarium
This was a landmark exhibition space for snakes at Southwest 126th Street and South Dixie Highway, led by Bill Haast. It closed in 1984.
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Pioneer City
Pioneer City was a western-themed amusement park in western Broward County that opened in 1966 and closed less than two years later. Built during the heyday of TV westerns, the park was a built-to-scale Dodge City with a saloon, general store and cowboy actors who staged gunfights at high noon, bar brawls and hangings. The park land later became Long Key Nature Center.
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Tropical Panorama
Tropical Panorama was an eight-acre tourist attraction off Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 185th Street in what is now Aventura. Like many small Florida roadside attractions of the 1940s and 50s, it offered a bird show, trained porpoises, caged monkeys, and alligator wrestling,according to Florida’s Lost Tourist Attractions.
Crandon Park Zoo
The zoo, off the Rickenbacker Causeway on the way to Key Biscayne, opened in 1948 and moved to its current South Miami-Dade location in 1980. After the move, it was renamed Metrozoo and is now known as Zoo Miami.
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Six Flags Atlantis
The water slide theme park in Hollywood closed in 1992 after damage from Hurricane Andrew. It was replaced by Oakwood Plaza shopping center.
Parrot Jungle
it moved from its longtime Pinecrest home to the MacArthur Causeway and changed name to Jungle Island.
Pirates World
The 87-acre buccaneer theme park, built in 1966 at Federal Highway north of Sheridan Street in Dania Beach, closed by the summer of 1975. Besides the rides, music fans poured into the park for rock concerts.
Miami Wax Museum
The North Miami attraction featured wax figures of celebrities and notables through history. Th emuseum closed in 1984 and was replaced by an office building.
Wannado City
The indoor theme park featured various businesses and jobs for kids to experience. It closed in 2011 and has been replaced by retail at Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise.
Ocean World
The attraction, a smaller version of the Miami Seaquarium, was in Fort Lauderdale off the 17th Street Causeway until it closed in 1994. it featured dolphin and sea lion shows on 3 1/2 acres.
This story was originally published May 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Remember these Miami roadside attractions and theme parks? See what they looked like."