This website is dedicated to Arthur L. Bensen's vision of a theme park where visitors could see American history come to life before their eyes -

Frontier Town, North Hudson, NY

This is the inside of the Frontier Town brochure which I used to pour over incessantly. Click on the picture for a full-size rendition (~500K JPG)
Frontier Town is closed - in fact, the last time that Frontier Town was open was during the summer of 1998. Since it closed for the season that year it has not re-opened. (See the History of Frontier Town link below for more information.) And, barring a miracle, it will probably never open again BUT, as you can see below, there is a group forming to possibly bring off such a miracle.

This website celebrates what was, through the memories of those who visited, and worked, there.

Update for 25 March 2012
Save the date - July 1, 2012!
No, it's not the Main Street of Prairie Junction, but it is a street of western false fronts in North Hudson, NY. It's Gokey's Trading Post, and it's the location of Frontier Town Day 2012!

Frontier Town Day started in the fall of 2011. I've added a new link below for Frontier Town Day. You can follow it to see a page of pictures from that first Frontier Town Day, a day filled with remembrances from those who worked at Frontier Town over the years.

As Frontier Town Day grows, there will be more memories from the past but there will also be more of the action that we all remember Frontier Town for. The pillory that was available for pictures at the 2011 Frontier Town Day, and was always a favorite photo op for visitors to Frontier Town over the years, will return. In addition, plans have already been made for shoot outs in the street and a demonstration of period firearms, and more plans are being made. I will continue to update this notice as those plans come together.

(If you would like to participate in a shoot out, let Caleb Bauer know by sending him an email at calebbauer23[at]yahoo.com, or leaving a message for him at the Frontier Town group on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/FrontierTowncommited, or email me at the address below and I'll pass the message on to him – be sure to include Frontier Town Day in the subject.)

So mark Sunday, July 1, 2012 on your calendar and make your way that day to North Hudson to share in Frontier Town Day 2012!

I do occasionally add more to this site (though I am slower than I used to be), so be sure to check back occasionally - you can determine what has changed since your last visit by looking at the Past Updates page.

And for everyone who has, or who will, email me, please have patience if I am slow to reply. I do, eventually, answer every email I receive.

End of Update
My name is Steve Gross. I grew up in northern Vermont during the sixties. Art Bensen opened Frontier Town on July 4, 1952. My first visit came ten years later, prompted by the Magic Tom television show on CFCF-TV out of Montreal. For the next ten years, my family and I would make a trip to Frontier Town each summer.
Though anyone could buy a paper announcing that they had captured an outlaw, I was lucky enough on a couple of my visits to be in the right place at the right time and be chosen to actually catch a stagecoach robber. This is a picture of me at the trial of that robber from our 1967 visit.
Each year I would get to take one friend with me to Frontier Town. Through the years I took a number of different friends but one in particular came for a number of years. He and I created a 'Frontier Town Club'. I wrote to Art Bensen to tell him about the club. I still have the letter Mr. Bensen sent me in reply.
I think that 1971 was the last year my family went to Frontier Town. After graduating from high school in 1974, I took one solo trip to Frontier Town. I did not go back again until 1990, when I took my wife to see this place that had meant so much to me as a kid.
Kids today do not have the exposure to westerns that we did in the sixties. Think of all the television shows that portrayed the west - 'Gunsmoke', 'Bonanza', 'Rawhide', 'Death Valley Days', 'The Big Valley', etc. And local television played a lot more western movies - John Wayne, Roy Rogers - than syndicated programming in those days.
I took my kids to Frontier Town in 1996 and 1997, though I don't think it meant as much to them as it did to me thirty years earlier. Here is a picture of my kids and me in front of the blockhouse from our 1996 trip.

Frontier Town as it existed for 52 years is gone. The contents of the park were auctioned on 9 & 10 October 2004 and the land that the park sits on was auctioned in two parcels on 21 October 2004. One parcel contains the A-Frame, and the purchaser has stated that he plans to resell it at some point. The other parcel contains the park itself, and the purchaser has not made his intentions for the land known. (I got this information from an article that appeared in the Plattsburgh Press Republican on 26 October 2004.) Panther Mountain Water Park retained two undeveloped parcels. The New York Times contained an article on 18 October 2004 that said the following:

Mr. Delafrange [Ken Delafrange, president of PMWP] will retain a sliver of the property, which includes a gas station and a hotel, and he hopes to do something with it." I'm 59 years old and to play cowboys and Indians for a living isn't the worst thing in the world."

Over the summer of 2007, Panther Mountain Water Park lost its appeal of the tax sale by Essex County, allowing the winners of the auction to take possesion of the land. It remains to be seen what they will do now that they have title to it.

I received the following post in the spring of 2011. It is from one of the organizers of a movement to have Frontier Town re-opened as an historic landmark. Here is his post (slightly edited) from the guest book:

I was only five when Frontier Town closed. I don't remember much, aside from the train robbers , but one thing that I do remember is the happiness that I had whenever I was there. I was even friends with Sheriff Goat! He always told me, "Work hard, be a man of your word, be strong." I live by these words to this day. Sheriff Goat had a great impact on my life, may he rest in peace. Someday we'll see each other again in the presence of our Savior. Anywho, there is currently an organization being formed and a plan being created to bring Frontier Town back. We have even contacted local town supervisors, state senators, and senators to D.C. People love this place. Petitions are being hung up all over the area so that people can sign to show their support. We are on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/home.php?sk=group_183127821732831&ap=1 and we have a website. We would love for as many people as possible to be part of this. People love Frontier Town! Now it's time that we do something about it!

-Caleb Bauer

I have added a link to their site to the Links page.

I would be glad to hear from anyone who has news of Frontier Town, or who has memories they would like to share. You can contact me at FrontierTownFan@hotmail.com.

I love to get pictures from visitors to this website. I also occasionally get requests from people who are writing articles or papers about Frontier Town who would like to include pictures from this website. For that reason, I would ask that if you send me picture(s), please include a copyright/use statement or a statement that you consider your contribution to be "Public Domain."

I bought the sign pictured to the left at the Frontier Town contents liquidation auction at Gokey's Trading Post in North Hudson on 9 October 2004. It appears as if it might have originally been at the bottom of a larger sign, as the top of this sign is rough cut and not beveled like its other sides. Now, however, it graces the door that leads from my dining room to my living room - I only wish that Frontier Town really were on the other side of the door.
Past Updates updated Where to see some of Frontier Town today
Park Map Daily Park Schedule Movies of Frontier Town
Memories Guest Book Forum
Picture Galleries History of Frontier Town The Passing of an Era
Airpark The People of Frontier Town Links
Frontier Town Day new
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This site is not associated with Frontier Town but is the personal endeavor of Steve Gross.