Score another victory for Pittsburgh’s nostalgia-industrial complex. The nightmare is over.
Garfield’s Nightmare at Kennywood is turning back into the Old Mill.
“We’re going to be bringing back the Old Mill as so many of you have requested,” Kennywood spokesman Nick Paradise says in a Facebook video, “and restoring the ride to the retro Western theme that’s been remembered by so many over the years.”
The Old Mill, a dark boat ride, wasn’t the first ride to open at Kennywood, but it’s the oldest still standing. It was first built in 1901.
It wasn’t always the Old Mill. Kennywood changed the theme often — it became the Fairyland Floats, which became the Panama Canal, then the Rapid’s Gorge, then back to Fairyland Floats again, and back to the Old Mill. A fire burned it completely to the ground in the 1920s. In the 1970s, it was Hardheaded Harold’s Horrendously Humorous Haunted Hideaway.
It went back to the Old Mill in the 1990s, and became Garfield’s Nightmare in 2004, with 3-D glasses making the famous feline’s fluorescent nightmares seem to jump out at riders.
The floral clock display, which was removed to make room during the construction of Thomas Town in 2018, is also coming back for this upcoming season, which Kennywood announced on Twitter.