Rare Photos Show Storytown USA During Its Earliest Days in Lake George

Take a Trip Back in Time

As The Great Escape officially opens for another season during Memorial Day weekend, many longtime Capital Region families can’t help but think back to the park’s early days as Storytown USA.

And few people know that history better than Bob Carroll.

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Carroll, born in Johnstown and a longtime Capital Region resident, worked directly for Charles Wood, the wealthy entrepreneur who founded Storytown USA — the Lake George attraction that would eventually evolve into The Great Escape.

Over more than 20 summers, Carroll did just about everything imaginable at the park.
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“I was an announcer, ventriloquist, magician, emcee… whatever was needed,” Carroll once recalled. “It was the best of times," he told us.

Unrecognizable

While some original attractions still remain, much of the park has changed dramatically over the decades. Most visitors today would hardly recognize what Storytown USA looked like in the 1950s, ’60s, or even ’70s.

Thankfully, Carroll’s family preserved a piece of that history.

The photos in this gallery were taken by Carroll’s parents during the park’s opening season in 1954, when Bob himself was just 4 years old.

See Pics from 1954

Long before towering roller coasters and water rides, Storytown USA was a charming Mother Goose-themed park that quickly became a summer tradition for generations of Upstate New York families.

And now, more than 70 years later, the memories are still very much alive.