Oaks Amusement Park

Oaks Amusement Park

Oaks Park is a small amusement park located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south of downtown Portland, Oregon, U.S. Known as the "Coney Island of the Northwest" after its opening in May 1905, it is one of the oldest operating amusement parks in the country.

The 44-acre (18 ha) park includes midway games, about two dozen rides that operate seasonally, a skating rink that is open all-year, and picnic grounds. It is also home to the Herschell-Spillman Noah's Ark Carousel, a historic wooden carousel constructed in 1912.

The park, conceived as an attraction timed to accompany the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, was built by the Oregon Water Power and Railway Company and opened on May 30, 1905, during a period when trolley parks were often constructed along streetcar lines.

The park attracted 300,000 visitors during its first season, and continued to attract about that many patrons throughout its first decade of existence.

In 1989, the park and the interior of the roller rink were seen in a long sequence in Breaking In, a film written by John Sayles, directed by Bill Forsyth, and starring Burt Reynolds. It also appears in the 1999 PBS special Great Old Amusement Parks.

Oaks Park's skating rink was featured in the 2007 true story Music Within, 2008 thriller movie Untraceable, and again on TNT's Leverage on the season four episode four "The Van Gogh Job". The park itself was also featured in Free Willy (1993).

More recently, the park has appeared on Portlandia and Grimm.

Location

7805 SE Oaks Park Way
Lake Oswego, Multnomah County
Oregon, USA

Getting There

Oaks Amusement Park is a historic amusement park located in Portland, Oregon. It is accessible by public transportation.

To get to Oaks Amusement Park by public transportation, you can take the MAX Orange Line or the #19 Woodstock/Glisan bus. The MAX Orange Line has a stop at the park's entrance, and the #19 bus stops nearby. You can also take the Portland Streetcar to the SE 17th & Rhine station and walk a few blocks to the park.

Additionally, TriMet offers a shuttle service called the Oaks Park Loop, which runs between the MAX Orange Line's SE Bybee Blvd Station and Oaks Amusement Park during the summer months. The shuttle is free for MAX riders with proof of fare.

Nearby Airports

This is a list of primary airports in Oregon that have scheduled passenger service on commercial airlines.