Life and Death at Lake Compounce

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Lake Compounce is the oldest, continuously operating amusement park in the United States. It's located in Bristol, Connecticut and originally covered 332 acres that included a beach and water park. 

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Compounce Park, Green Dragon rollercoaster in the background c.1914

In 1684, the Mattatuck tribe signed a deed leaving the property to settlers, of what was to become the Lake Compounce Park. 

In October, 1846, Samuel Botsford, an influential scientist had persuaded Gad Norton, descended from one of the original owners to use the property to conduct experiments in electricity.

When Gad Norton saw the crowds that gathered to see the experiment using explosives, he decided to open the park. He named it after Chief John Compound who signed over the land so many years before.

The public came to swim and row on the lake. A gazebo on the lakeside provided musical entertainment. Families would come to spend the day with a picnic basket in hand.

In 1895, a casino was added with a restaurant downstairs, and a ballroom upstairs. That same year the Plainville Tramway Company constructed the Southington and Compounce trolley. On Memorial Day, 1911, they opened the Lake Compounce Carousel. This was followed by the Green Dragon roller coaster in 1914. This was the park's first electric-powered roller coaster. It was torn down in 1927 to be replaced by the Wildcat, a wooden coaster, which is is still in existence today.

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Lake Compounce Park c.1940s

THE GHOST REVEAL

During the 1930s, the Starlight Ballroom was added to the casino. In 1941, Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra appeared there, and drew in a crowd of 5,000.

The use of automobiles and the Great Depression impacted attendance, and the use of trolleys also declined. In 1944, the park opened a steam railroad. The success of Compounce Lake continued until the 1960s.

In 1966, Edward Pierce sold his share to the Norton family who operated it until 1985, when it was sold to the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company. Marketing was not that good and attendance declined, this coupled with repeated ride outages brought about the sale of the park in 1987. It was renamed Lake Compounce Festival Park by the new owner Joseph Balestieri. A 20,000-seat amphitheater was added in 1988. In a strange twist, one of the first groups to perform there was Milli Vanilli, and  during their performance the secret got out they were lip syncing, when the recording they were supposedly singing to started to skip.

The owners concentrated on  concert promotion, and the amusement park portion fell into disuse. The roller coaster and other rides were not operating by 1991. The park would change hands several times, with the park being upgraded along the way. Present day families can go to enjoy water slides, the amusement rides and a campground.

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Lake Compounce Park rollercoaster c.1981

It's inevitable that Lake Compounce would develop its own ghost stories.

Since the early 1870s, the Compounce Spiritualist Association would hold their annual conventions at Lake Compounce. Could they be the source of ghostly sightings throughout the years?

But there could be others.

In 1939, Edward Bowen, 65, who operated the roller coaster for 23 years was found dead in his car. He was slumped in the driver's seat. The M.E. determined he died from a heart attack. He lived alone in a cottage behind the pavilion at the lake, and was the caretaker during the winter months. He built the first roller coaster at the lake in 1916, and helped design the second one in 1917.

In 1940, James Vignone, 19, drowned when he had gone for an outing with 350 other trade school students. He along with a school mate, had gone out on the lake in a rowboat. The boat submerged after waves from a park speedboat swamped it. They were forced to swim for the shore, which was 40 or 50 feet away, but neither made it. The other boy was picked up by a speedboat. Vignone went under before the rescue boat could reach him.

In 1956, a brawl started in the park. Darrell Hotham, 20, was killed when he was shot through the heart by a 16 year old. Apparently they each belonged to opposing gangs, and had gone to the woods to continue fighting, after what had just started as name calling. They also wanted to avoid the police who were monitoring the large crowds in the park. Holthum beat the 16-year-old, and later it was found that Hotham was killed after he dared Ronald A. Randall to shoot him. Randall was still criminally charged. Hotham left behind a wife, Marjorie who he had married 2 years before.

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Lake Compounce ballroom c.1942

​In 1963, a man was killed when he fell from the roller coast. His name was Robert Evon, 27, and for some reason he stood up in the roller coaster. They warned him to sit down through the loudspeaker. He did so, but stood up again where he tumbled down 39 feet.

In 1981, Michele Johnson, 16 was killed when she fell from the Wildcat roller coaster. She was standing and attempting to touch the fenceposts along the tracks, when her hand became caught in a post. She was pulled out and run over by the roller coaster.

Matthew Henne, 16, a ride attendant died in August 1999, after he fell beneath the Spinning Tornado ride.

Deven Alexander, 6, died in July, 2000, after falling off his inner tube on the Lake Plunge ride and slipping underwater for more than 20 minutes.

​In 2001, a groundskeeper, Wilfredo Martinez, 23, who was trimming weeds under a low stretch of the the Boulder Dash coaster didn't hear when the train was sent out on a test run. He was struck and killed. His death was the third at the park for the prior 22 months.

These are stories of those who have witnessed the unexplained at Lake Compounce:

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I've been working for the past 4 years at Lake Compounce, an amusement park in Bristol, CT. This park is widely regarded as the oldest amusement park in the United States. I have worked numerous third shifts in the offseason where I am the only living soul in the park until about 8 am, and boy have I experienced some things. There have been multiple deaths at the park both employees and guests, two of which I was present at as a first responder in the park.

Many guards including myself refuse to patrol specific areas of the park. More specifically the famous Starlight Theatre, where many famous musicians had their careers start (Frank Sinatra is one of them). One night while patrolling the park in January at around 3 am I was walking past the ballroom (theatre) and the lights were off and the doors locked, as I turned the corner to go to the other side of the park I looked back and all of the lights were on and the side door was open, nobody is in the park besides me. I immediately went back to our building and remained there for the rest of my shift.

Another night I went into our administration building to use the bathroom, as I was finishing up I heard footsteps and and doors opening and closing, once again I immediately went back into our security building and stayed there all night until my relief came. That morning the 1st shift guard saw the look on my face and knew right away that I had experienced something, he only nodded and said "I know, this place scares me too."

More recently in July we have a new laser light show, my partner and I were watching the lights when we get a call over the radio for a suspicious person, we go to check it out and it's a 15-16 year old boy well away from the crowd at the beach watching the show. We asked him what was wrong and he said, " wow a lot of people have died here, I can see them, the ones that drowned, and the one on the mountain, he's in gray staring down."

We have had multiple drownings and the gray figure he saw on the mountain we suspect was a maintenance worker, who wear gray jumpsuits, that was killed by our mountain roller coaster Boulder Dash a few years back. And then the kid said this, "It's time again, it will happen soon." We all agree at the lake that every two years something bad happens a death, severe injury, etc and we are long overdue.
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I worked security at the oldest amusement park in America; Lake Compounce. The ballroom is by far the most haunted. A couple of my supervisors, in the middle of the day, decided to take a break in the ballroom. One of them had eaten a granola bar and was going to throw the wrapper away in the garbage can, when the can slides across the room, and a chair was knocked over. At night you can hear music playing, and people talking. It was definitely scary to be there alone.