People ride the Comet as haze hangs over Hershey and Hersheypark as smoke from Canadian wildfires filtered into Pennsylvania on June 8, 2023. The smoke degraded air quality across Pennsylvania and other states in the northeast. Jeremy Long - WITF News
People ride the Comet as haze hangs over Hershey and Hersheypark as smoke from Canadian wildfires filtered into Pennsylvania on June 8, 2023. The smoke degraded air quality across Pennsylvania and other states in the northeast. Jeremy Long - WITF News
AIRED; November 5, 2025
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When most people think of Hersheypark, images of chocolate and roller coasters often come to mind. But in his new book, Thrill Ride: The Transformation of Hersheypark, Dr. John R. Haddad dives deeper into the park’s rich history and cultural evolution.
“Right, so if you walk into Hershey Park today, their formula for success is pretty obvious — chocolate theming plus thrill rides. But it wasn’t always like that,” Haddad explained. “Hershey Park has a very long history. It dates all the way back to 1906, when Milton Hershey built it as a recreational venue for chocolate workers and their families. It underwent a massive change in the early 1970s, when it ceased being an amusement park and started being a theme park.”
Haddad notes that by the late 1960s, the park was beginning to show its age. “People absolutely loved it in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s… but by the ’60s, it had become kind of rundown and the rides were outdated. There were acts of vandalism because it wasn’t fenced off. The officials had a momentous choice: let the park deteriorate, shut it down, or renovate. They chose to renovate.”
The early 1970s transformation incorporated historical theming designed to reflect the local culture. Visitors experienced “merry old England from the 1500s, the German Rhineland region from the 1800s, the traditional lifestyle of the Pennsylvania Dutch, and Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal mining districts,” Haddad said. “The park preserved some of those wonderful old rides, like the Comet roller coaster or the Carousel… In the new theme park, these rides represented nostalgia for an earlier era and represented the town of Hershey the way it was.”
Even today, subtle touches preserve the park’s history. “If you look closely, there are a handful of bricks in that Starbucks that look different from all the other bricks. Those are original bricks from the front entrance to Hershey Park,” Haddad shared, highlighting the park’s dedication to honoring Milton Hershey’s legacy.
Haddad was drawn to the project while living locally with his young children. “I needed a project that was local… so I chose to do the cultural history of Hershey Park. I got season passes pretty much every summer, and I realized I could bludgeon my children with historical facts about the park while we were walking through it,” he said with a laugh.
Thrill Ride offers both a nostalgic journey for longtime visitors and a detailed look at how Hersheypark evolved from a community amusement park to a nationally recognized theme park, preserving the charm of a small Pennsylvania town while attracting millions of guests.
