A Trenton amusement park that last had visitors in 2019 is reopening next month with a new name and a new focus to its business.
Formerly known as Wild Acadia Fun Park, which for years has been the last remaining amusement park in eastern Maine, it will reopen July 1 as Wild Acadia Camping Resort. It still will have water slides, mini-golf, and a ropes climbing course that are open to the public — but it is reopening with 90 new campsites, most of which will have water and electricity hookups for recreational vehicles or camper trailers.
Wild Acadia is among several new campgrounds in the Ellsworth area as the number of tourists who visit Acadia National Park climb to unprecedented heights. New or upgraded campgrounds have opened in the past two years in Surry, Bar Harbor and Tremont, while others are being planned for Ellsworth and Bass Harbor.
Andrew Allen, who owns Wild Acadia with his brother James Allen, said that the idea of adding a campground to the amusement park had been considered by the prior owner. It’s been in the back of the brothers’ minds since they bought the business in 2011.
The fact that it is the last amusement park in eastern Maine has been a lingering concern, he said.
“There is a reason for that,” Allen said.
Popularity of amusement parks nationwide has been on the decline for years, according to Allen. Other types of entertainment such as games and movies have become more portable and accessible, and consumer tastes overall have changed, he said. Over the years Wild Acadia has reduced its evening staffing as it has gotten fewer and fewer customers late in the day.
“The business model [of offering amusements only] no longer works,” he said. “It was just sort of dying off. We needed to do something.”
The COVID-19 pandemic put a sharper focus on what that something was, he said. Wild Acadia stayed closed in 2020 because of the pandemic, and the Allens decided to remain closed for 2021 both so they could pursue the camping addition and because children under the age of 12 still were not eligible for vaccines.
Meanwhile, the popularity of camping has soared as people have sought out more outdoor activities as a way to lessen possible exposure to COVID, and integrated campgrounds have been proven to draw business to amusement parks outside Maine, Allen said. Parents often like staying somewhere on vacation where there is ample entertainment for their children within yards of their accommodations, he said.
Along with adding the 90 campsites, the Allens also decided to make some changes to the fun park.
The go-karts are gone, he said, eliminating noise and potential liability. The go-karts also required a lot of maintenance and took up much of their employees’ time, he said.
While the ropes course has been modified to eliminate the top-most level, new routes in the tree canopy have been added.
They also have built a new shallow pool with a built-in “spray” playground. And there is still an 800-foot zip line and an outdoor climbing wall.
Allen said before the pandemic he did not anticipate how much the local tourism industry could change in such a short period of time. His business might have to adapt even more in the next decade, he said.
“It will be interesting to see what sort of other changes we either have to or want to make in another five or 10 years,” Allen said.
