A large sign and other artifacts from Space City USA, a proposed theme park being built in Huntsville, Alabama in the 1960s were recently found in a deteriorating barn in Chickamauga, Georgia near Chattanooga. The items had been stored in the collapsing barn since being purchased at an auction selling off the Space City USA assets in 1967.

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Lance George

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Bob Gathany

Space City USA is the biggest thing that never happened in Huntsville.

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Bob Gathany

For a brief, shining moment in the early 1960s, Huntsville was going to have an amusement park that rivaled Disney World. Actually, it would rival Disneyland, because Disney World was still basically swampland.

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Bob Gathany

Estimated cost for the fantastic amusement park with space as its central theme: $5 million (about $35 million today). Number of annual visitors expected: 1.2 million.

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Bob Gathany

The park was to be located along Alabama Highway 20 between Huntsville and Decatur, near Madison, off what is now Zierdt Road south of I-565.

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Bob Gathany

This painting shows the proposed Space City USA located between Redstone Arsenal and Huntsville Airport.

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Bob Gathany

Billboards were put up along Alabama Hwy 20 promoting the coming attraction.

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Bob Gathany

Promotional maps of the proposed Space City USA development were drawn up.

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Bob Gathany

Brochures were made showing the proposed rides and amusements.

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Bob Gathany

Local investors were pretty excited about the planned park, too, and wanted a piece of the projected action. Two million shares of stock in the proposed development were to be sold.

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Bob Gathany

Land grading started on the site in late January 1964. Construction began on the 24 park rides.

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Bob Gathany | bgathany@al.com

A train track was built around Lady Ann Lake and a steam engine circa-1897 locomotive - "Melodia B" was placed on the new track, waiting for kids and their parents to hop aboard.

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Bob Gathany

After all that hype, all that talk around town, all the local kids' sleepless nights, the project apparently just fizzled. Local businesses filed suit to get paid. The project chairman blamed the weather for a lull in activity that slipped the opening date to the spring of 1967. A Times story in September 1967 suggests the reasons were unclear even then. "Space City USA in Court Battle -- Costly Park Lies in Decay," read the headline. It described the overgrown site and a few forgotten landmarks "rusting into ruin." The train was still there, "its windows shattered and its bell missing."

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Bob Gathany

So on Oct. 17 1967, the sad remains of what might have made Huntsville another Orlando went on the auction block. By then, the newspaper condemned it as "an amusement park scheme which fell flat on its face and took some $2 million in capital with it." An ad for the auction detailed what was left. It included the train, five cars and track, a 60-horse carousel, a 1916 Model T Ford, three parcels of land, four "white structures called time capsules," an Old South railway station, one old mill house and "one crooked house."

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Bob Gathany

Today little remains of what was once to be. A concrete path for "Cave Man Car Ride" near Edgewater club house is one of the few remaining pieces of evidence that Space City USA was ever here.

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Bob Gathany | bgathany@al.com

A large swan from the Space City USA amusement park swan boat ride bought at the auction is sitting in a backyard in Madison, Alabama.

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Bob Gathany

A few of the worthless stock certificates some local investors purchased remain, reminders of failed investment.

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Bob Gathany

Little other physical evidence of Space City USA has been found until just recently.

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Lance George

The Space City USA sign that was erected in front of the Space City USA office on Alabama Highway 20 on Space Age Rd. was recently discovered in Chickamauga, Georgia.

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Lance George

In addition to the sign, two wooden plywood astronaut characters that appeared on the Alabama Hwy 20 billboard were found.

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Bob Gathany | bgathany@al.com

The large sign, 2 small signs and the two plywood space people had been in storage since being purchased at an auction in 1967 selling off the assets of Space City USA.

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Bob Gathany

This is a photo of the original billboard on Alabama Hwy 20 with the plywood astronauts.

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:Lance George

The owners researched Space City USA online to find out where the items came from. They were able to make contact with Lance George who created the Space City USA page on Facebook.

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Lance George

The barn where the items had been stored since 1967 was caving in.

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Lance George

The current owners actually thought it might be part of a boat because they saw a fin sticking out of the pile.

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Lance George

Two small signs for the Space City USA sales office were also pulled out of the barn.

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Lance George

After removing the items from the barn, brothers Lance and Vance George were able to load the historic artifacts onto a trailer and bring them back to Huntsville, Alabama.

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Lance George

The plan is to restore the signs and figures and make them part of the "George" collection.

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Bob Gathany

To learn more about Space City USA read Deborah Story's original article - Space City, an amusement park proposed in 1960a, was never completed .

You can also find photos and new info on Space City USA on Lance George's Space City USA Theme Park - Huntsville, Alabama Facebook page

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