Clementon Park Shuts Its Doors After 118 Years — clementon park…

The wooden roller coaster that has towered over Camden County since the Coolidge administration went quiet for good this week. Clementon Park & Splash World, the South Jersey amusement park that survived the Great Depression, two World Wars, and a devastating 2011 flood, has closed permanently after 118 years in operation. The announcement came without warning to most season pass holders, who learned via a brief social media post that the park would not reopen for the 2025 season. No refunds were mentioned. No explanation was offered beyond a vague reference to "circumstances beyond our control." The park's website went dark within hours, and the phone number now rings to a disconnected line. For generations of South Jersey families, Clementon Park wasn't just an amusement park. It was the place you took your first roller coaster ride, your first summer job, your first date. The Jack Rabbit, built in 1919 and recognized as one of the oldest operating wooden coasters in America, gave more than 100 years of thrills before falling silent. That's older than the Empire State Building, older than sliced bread, older than the NFL. The closure leaves behind more than nostalgia. The park employed roughly 200 seasonal workers, most of them teenagers and young adults from Camden, Gloucester, and Burlington counties. For many, it was their first real job, the one that taught them how to handle a register, manage a crowd, and show up on time. With South Jersey's job market already tightening, those positions won't be easily replaced. Season pass holders are the ones taking the hardest financial hit. An unlimited season pass typically cost between $80 and $120, and many families purchased theirs months in advance. Under New Jersey consumer protection rules, prepaid services that are never delivered can sometimes be recovered through small claims court, but only if the business still has assets to pursue. Whether Clementon Park's owners will honor refunds remains unclear, and that uncertainty is exactly what leaves pass holders stuck. There's also the broader economic ripple. Local businesses along Blackwood-Clementon Road, from pizza shops to ice cream stands, depended on summer traffic the park generated. Losing an anchor attraction in a region already short on affordable family entertainment is a slow bleed that won't show up in headlines but will show up in empty parking lots. Clementon Park's troubles weren't new. A 2011 storm submerged much of the property, forcing a lengthy closure and costly rebuild. Ownership changed hands multiple times over the past two decades, and each transition seemed to chip away at maintenance and marketing. The park never fully recovered its pre-flood momentum, and the pandemic years only accelerated the decline. What's lost is harder to quantify than revenue. It's the sound of the Jack Rabbit's chain lift on a July afternoon. It's teenagers in matching polo shirts arguing over who has to clean the funnel cake stand. It's grandparents pointing out the exact bench where they first kissed in 1962. If you're holding a season pass or a prepaid ticket, don't wait. Contact the park's parent company in writing, document what you paid, and if refunds don't come, file a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. Nostalgia won't get your money back, but a paper trail might. Amusement parks are businesses, and businesses close. But when a place survives 118 years and then vanishes without so much as a goodbye, it says less about the economics of roller coasters and more about how casually we let pieces of our shared history slip away. South Jersey deserved better than a social media post. So did the Jack Rabbit.