Oldest U.S. Amusement Park in Connecticut Started With People Viewing Electrical Experiments

If one of your bucket list items is to raise your arms high and scream on rollercoasters around the country then living in Connecticut means we're already ahead of the game.

Of course the first and oldest amusement park should be on that list and it's right here in our own backyard.

Welcome to Lake Compounce in Bristol outside Hartford.

If you're not familiar with it, it not only has everything you want in a theme park including five roller coasters, plenty of food, and live shows, it sits on a lake with a beach and a water park.

Also, Lake Compounce is home to the Boulder Dash, which was voted the world’s number one wooden coaster according to the website Oldest. By the way it's also the fourth oldest amusement park in the entire world.

In 1846 a Connecticut scientist named Samuel Botsford conducted experiments involving electricity. Well as you can imagine back then those experiments drew a huge crowd of people flocking to watch in wonderment. That's when Samuel created Lake Compounce as a place to have picnics and barbecues while watching these experiments.

In a very entrepreneurial spirit, Samuel slowly expanded adding attractions and rides two years later in 1848 according to the Oldest website and here began the creation of the first and oldest amusement park in the United States.

Following Lake Compounce some 25 years later the next two amusement parks emerged including Six Flags New England outside Springfield, Massachusetts.

Here are the oldest in the United States in order according to the Oldest website.

• Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
• Six Flags New England, Agawam, Massachusetts
• Idlewild and Soak Zone, Irondequoit, Ligonier, Pennsylvania
• Seabreeze Amusement Park, Irondequoit, New York
• Dorney Park and Wildlife Kingdom, Allentown, Pennsylvania
• Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio
• Lagoon in Farmington, Utah
• Arnolds Park, in Arnolds Park, Iowa
• Conneaut Lake Park in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania