OMG!
If you ever lived in northern IL/ the northwestern suburbs and you remember Shireland you have to go look at this website.
Shireland was a kinda sorta amusement park. I remember visiting there in the late '80's. It was an odd place devoted to Shire horses. It was made out of a bunch of tents. One tent had, like, movies and stuff, a few tents had rides, and the big tent had a circus thing going on where the Shire horses put on a show.
Despite the fact that I didn't really like horses I remember really liking the place. So much so, that when my cat had kittens I named the biggest kitten of the litter Shirecat.
Anywho, the place did not last long, but you could still see some of the buildings from the highway until, according to the above website, a fire wiped out the remaining buildings.
The Super Bowl Ads featuring the Clydesdale Horses made me google Shire horses to see how different they were from Shires, which led to me googling Shireland.
Ho-ree Kwap.
Northern Illinois had its very own mini Howard Hughes in its midst!
Apparently the dude who owned and ran Shireland is an eccentric self made millionaire inventor. He is bat crap crazy and created Shireland to be (think Michael Jackson) his childhood playland since he apparently had a crappy upbringing.
He has been involved in a crap ton of lawsuits. He has a ghost town of empty houses and Shireland equipment/structures on his property.
The whole story seems kinda sad and sorrid and I feel sorry for the poor horses that it sounds like go caught in the middle of crazytown.
Shireland then:
Shireland now:
In the Magic of Kids video I thought they were playing "You Spin Me Round". I'm disappointed that it was a different song. Also, surprisingly good sound for such a low quality video.
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