01. This is the beautiful mural found on the famous Portsmouth Flood Walls.
02. A postcard showing the Casino.
03. A view of the great scenic bridge and hillside.
One of many towns with a history of steel production along the Ohio River, New Boston is located just east of Portsmouth OH, and was home to Millbrook Park. A side friction coaster was built in 1902 by Ingersoll, and at that time was the tallest one in the world. I doubt if the record was held long, but research shows it to be approximately 60 feet high. It was a modified version of the typical figure-8 layout (which can be seen on coasters like Leap The Dips at Lakemont Park in Altoona). As of Jan. 2002 I have been involved in the creation of a scale model of the coaster! Look for it to reside in the New Boston city building. It is very difficult as I only have a couple photos and the mural painting (see link) to go by! A couple buildings from the park remain, and there is a square red brick power station still standing east of the Kmart plaza. That power station can be seen in the few photos of the park. The coaster sat south of what is now a series of telephone pole racks. The lift hill faced north. A liquor store uses the former trolley station just north of the coaster site. Millbrook was a beautiful place, and an ideal setting for a park. But like so many others, being that close to the river proved fatal. The coaster survived a couple floods, but the one in 1913 damaged it beyond repair and it was never reopened due to the cost involved. The park itself found an end when the great Ohio flood of 1937 wiped out everything along its banks, combined with the growing steel industry that took over the park property. Coney Island in Cincinnati still has a marker indicating the 80' crest of the river that year!
Dan Johnson's great Millbrook Park site!
