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The Wild Mouse LbNA #14551 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Searcher
Plant date:May 7, 2005
Location:
City:Springfield
County:Greene
State:Missouri
Boxes:1
Found by: Princess Di
Last found:Jun 26, 2009
Status:FFFFFFFFFaFaar
Last edited:May 7, 2005
***This box has been temporarily removed due to vandalism***

The Wild Mouse will return with new directions in the future. Check back to see when it's wild ride continues!

Doling park was originally opened as a 40 acre amusement park by James Doling. It was then sold to Springfield Amusement Co in 1907, and ended up belonging it to the City of Springfield in 1929. It's "heyday" was from 1907-1929, where thousands would come to enjoy the lakes, the pavilion, and water chute ride. The park later added a penny arcade (yes the games really only cost 1-10cents to play), a skating rink, and amusement rides. I remember going to the park as a kid, riding the rides, playing skeeball and going roller skating. All those things are gone now (most likely torn down between 1979-1981) but the memories of the greatest little park in Springfield remain!

(More history of the park can be found by doing a search on Yahoo or Google.)

Now for directions to the box: Drive along Kearney Ave (between Kansas and National just past BBC) to Robberson and go North (There is a sign here for the Community Center). Drive into the lot in front of the community center and park in front of the big stone marker for Mr. Doling (west side of lot). The grassy area behind the marker is where the amusement park rides, arcade and the "Wild Mouse" once stood. Rides included a roller coaster, ferris wheel, a small ride-through a haunted house and bumper cars to name a few. The arcade housed skee-ball and 30's-50's era pinball, baseball, etc. type games. (In case you are ever in Manitou Springs CO you can play many of the same games in their arcade!) Ok, back to the box, walk North or down the hill to the newer childrens play area by the lake, cross the bridge and follow the paved trail left through the woods (start counting lightposts), when you reach the fork in the trail (2nd post) stay right, after the 4th lightpost there is a small trail to the right (if you get to the 5th lightpost you have gone too far), take the trail to the right and behind the 3rd tree on the right (appx. 16 steps) is where you will find the letterbox under a pile of rocks and leaves. Please take care when returning the box to keep it well hidden and protect it from the weather. Thanks, and have fun!