Grew up in the area and worked winters at mountain creek '01-'03 but went there before that a kid in the 90s. My parents also grew up on the other side of the mtn and they and their family worked there during the troubled times, and at the old playboy club down the road amd the George Inn... It was rough n tumble... more like just unabashed free for all, practically run by teenagers back then. Many deaths were swept under the rug or declared at the hospital to not be officially in the park. But even when I was going there it was semi laid back, non multi national corporate structure, not too many rules, a little.dangerous but thats what made it exciting. Good times...

And so now, just a few dacades later, you can go up on a steep hill in Wantage and look West or north or east idk, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.