1800s-themed amusement park up for sale in Benton County, Mo.

WARSAW, Mo. (KY3) - An 1800s-themed amusement park in rural Benton County is up for sale. The property has been in one’s family for generations.

”It was called Cumberland Gap pioneer settlement. We opened it in 1979. With just a couple of buildings, we bought more land to go with it,” said Marion Shipman, the owner.

For more than 40 years the Shipman family has owned the old-time theme amusement park. The concept behind the park is an 1870s frontier town.

”All of the buildings were built out of salvage lumber, we didn’t we there’s two buildings that we moved, there are two log cabins that we found, while we were tearing down something else,” said Marion Shipman.

Every year more buildings got hand-built.

”We added a building a year or more, for about eight years, eight or 10 years, and got it basically to what it is now.”The amusement park has been closed since 1995. ”I think we were just a little bit ahead of our time, because the area wasn’t tourist-related, yet,” said Shipman.

Shipman says it was fun to run the park with his family, but it just wasn’t profitable.

”That’s the problem. We did have a lot of fun doing it. I would usually run the blacksmith shop. My dad had a little shop where he split wood shingles. My mom ran the store except during festivals. And during those she would serve food out of this big log cabin,” said Shipman.

The family is in a contract with another family for the property. The new family has plans for the property.

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