Final sale at Old Miracle Strip

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The Abominable Snowman still stands snarling over the cluttered remnants of the Miracle Strip Amusement Park, but he wears a woebegone look now and his body is covered with graffiti.

It’s the same with the devil’s head entrance to Dante’s Inferno and the old haunted house, both of which prompt sympathy now rather than fear.

Panama City Beach resident Marsha Harrrell was stepping gingerly through the litter and broken glass recently, thinking about days gone by.

“I’m just here trying to remember the look of the old rides,” she said. “It was quite a social gathering. You could always pay your $5 and walk around and see people you had met at the beach.”

Leslie Dickens, of Dickens Land Clearing and Rock World, who owns the demolition contract for the now-defunct park, said everything will be taken away Thursday when he begins clearing the 12-acre site on Front Beach Road.

Dickens is hoping to sell the remaining pieces of nostalgia, including the small planes and hot air balloon baskets of the last two rides.

“All the buildings and structures are going, right down to the concrete,” Dickens said.

Back in the day

In its heyday, Miracle Strip Amusement Park offered more than 60 attractions, from bumper cars to the Musik Express. Other pieces of the landmark Panama City Beach park, which closed its doors in September 2004 after 41 years, already have found other haunts.

The painted eyes of the 30 ponies from the old Allan Herschell carousel now gaze out at Pier Park customers. The classic 2,000-foot wooden Starliner roller coaster clicks and clacks at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park in Winter Haven.

The rest of the attractions, including a maze of mirrored illusions, now are long gone, either sold off by specialized brokers or tossed like old bones into metal sheds.

The property has been under increased scrutiny in recent months and the target of code violations, said Mel Leonard, director of building and planning for Panama City Beach.

He said the owner of the property recently was sent a letter and told to clear the site. Plans are on file at City Hall for a condo development, but Leonard said he doubts that will happen anytime soon because of current economic markets.

Everything not sold at the site before Thursday will be carted off and put in a warehouse, said Dickens, who now owns “everything inside the fences.”

“I’ll put everything up on Craigslist or eBay,” he said. “Eventually, the word will get out.”