Remember this? A trip to the beach almost always meant a trip to the Pixie Kitchen. This is another of Oregon’s most famous icons that was lost to apathy.

One of the best places to eat at the beach was Pixie Kitchen at Lincoln City. It was the home of “Heavenly Food on the Oregon Coast”. I remember my Aunt Ruth talking about it every time she went to the beach. Pixie Kitchen opened in the 1930’s at Oceanlake, Oregon, which is now Lincoln City.

Interior view of Pixie Kitchen looking outside where the Pixie Train can be seen. Pixie Kitchen had several different owners over the years.

By the 1960s, the restaurant had become a popular tourist spot with the slogan "Heavenly Food on the Oregon Coast." So much so that an amusement park inspired by the restaurant, called Pixieland, was opened just north of Lincoln City.

The Pixie Kitchen opened its doors on May 21, 1953, in Wecoma Beach, which is now the northern part of Lincoln City. Owners Jerry and Lu Parks bought the restaurant from former owner T.C. Gallagher, who had called it Pixie Pot Pie. The Parks created a restaurant where families could enjoy an affordable meal and be transported to a magical fairytale land. Special attention was given to children, who were viewed as customers, and were given place mats that folded into pixie hats and candy gifts.

Cost of the theme park was estimated at two million dollars and Parks hired two former Disneyland employees, the director of music and director of special promotions, to help design, build and operate the park. Parks bought a parcel of land along Highway 18, near Otis, Oregon about three miles north of Lincoln City. Construction began later that year.

Plans for Pixieland were unveiled in 1967 by Jerry Parks, the then current owner of Pixie Kitchen. He described it as a 57-acre " Fairytale Story of Oregon ." In this first rendering we see a frontier village, "industrial exhibit buildings," canals, a children's zoo, canoe docks, a treehouse, an "Indian village," riverboat, lighthouse, merry-go-round, Ferris wheel and "log flume thrill ride."

Gov. Tom McCall dedicated Pixieland to the families of Oregon on June 28, 1969. You can see the Main Street Arcade, the Print Shop, the Shoot-Out and the Darigold Cheese Barn.

At the Darigold Barn Fountain you could get a sundae, a shake or an ice cream cone, or you could go strolling through the cheese cave where there were more types of cheese than a person could eat in a month. Next to the barn, was the Shoot Out, the Print Shop and the Arcade Amusements.

The Giant Tam was made of over 1200 square feet of fiberglass material, more than 60 gallons of resin and over 400 feet of steel bars were used in its construction. In the background you can see the flume for the log ride.

You couldn’t go to Pixieland without getting a Scone. The Giant Scotch Tam (Hat) on the roof of the Fisher’s Scone building is a full 32 feet in diameter.

There was always a splash on the Log Flume ride. To the rear and to the right is the Opera House.

I remember going to Pixieland a couple times as a kid. I remember catching the spray on the Log Flume Ride, going to the live theater with its villains and heroines. You had to eat a Fisher Scone and load up on candy at the Phillips Candy Kitchen.