1930
Oak Park closes
Oak Park closed its gates in 1930. e-WV attributes the park’s decline to the growing popularity of automobile travel, the weakening rail and coal industries, and the onset of the Great Depression. Peggy Ross’s 1994 Goldenseal article preserves an eyewitness recollection that the park likely closed around 1929, when the Bretz mine and the powerhouse supplying Oak Park shut down.
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Where this entry comes from
Brad Martin, “Oak Park,” e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia, last revised February 8, 2024; Peggy Ross, “Echoes of Things Past: Preston County’s Oak Park,” Goldenseal, vol. 20, no. 2 (Summer 1994), pp. 46–52
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