News of Upper Clements Park closure hits home and beyond
Former theme park lands to become site of boarding school
Chad R. MacDonald will remember Upper Clements Park as a place that changed the trajectory of his life.
He was a 19-year-old trying to find his place in the world the year it opened.
“By 1989 I had lost my way. Having failed out of my first try at university, I was scraping by in Halifax, working at fast food joints. Then I was offered a gig at Upper Clements Park,” he said in recent Facebook post. “It was a new thing Nova Scotia was trying, a theme park with a miniature train, a roller coaster, a flume ride and more, and they needed a troop of entertainers to help bring it to life.”
MacDonald and others have been reacting to the news that the first-ever franchise of one of the world’s top boarding schools will be built on the site of Upper Clements Parks in Annapolis County and could open as soon as September 2021. Annapolis County municipal council passed a motion March 17 to purchase three parcels of land that make up the former theme park for $600,000 for the sole purpose of furthering the Gordonstoun Nova Scotia project.
During his time at the theme park, MacDonald portrayed Clyde D. Pratfall — a comical conductor manning the park’s signature miniature train — for the first three seasons at what would come to be known throughout Nova Scotia simply as Upper Clements.
The provincial government shelled out $23 million to pave the way for the creation of amusement park. It promised to be a key economic driver within Nova Scotia.
MacDonald fondly recalls shoulder-to-shoulder crowds and long lines in the early days.
“I’ll never forget the day the park opened, it was such a circus,” he had once told the Annapolis Valley Register in August 2019. “The theme park had become quite the political football leading up to its opening; the opening crowds were enormous, and the media presence was insane.”
Amid the media frenzy, MacDonald was challenged to deliver an off-the-cuff Pratfall performance that would leave them wanting more.
Now a memory, MacDonald pinpoints the time Pratfall made Premier John Buchanan laugh as a defining moment in his life.
He went on to land a scholarship to a school in New York and find success as a writer, speaker and performer.
MacDonald returned to the park last summer to reunite with some of former co-workers, including fellow entertainers.
He brought his young son, an avid lover of trains, along for the ride.
The group planned to make the trip an annual occurrence, MacDonald said. Recent news of the theme park’s closure hit home.
“I get why Upper Clements Park is closing. Some things have to be done,” he told the
Annapolis Valley Register hours after the news broke on March 17.
“But I very much hope that it will be remembered fondly, and not just treated as an afterthought by the Valley community.”
For MacDonald, it’s a place where he stumbled onto something great. A place where he found friends. A place where he gained confidence — all under the guise of Clyde D. Pratfall.
“I’ll try not to mourn its passing, but celebrate that it happened, and what it meant to me. We don’t often have a chance to get that one last look at a time of our lives that we remember particularly fondly,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “But I did get that chance, and I’m very grateful for it.”
‘PARK WAS UNSTABLE’
Local farmer David Brown started volunteering on the board overseeing the old wildlife park at Upper Clements in 1995.
He stayed on when the boards for the wildlife and theme parks merged in 1997, and again opted to stick with it when the wildlife park closed in 2009.
He’s now the chairman of the Upper Clements Parks Society.
“I wanted to see it stay open as long as possible. It was important for the area,” said Brown. But board members had seen the writing on the wall for years, he said. “The park has never generated the income that it needed.”
Brown said the non-profit organization was tasked with maintaining 30-plus buildings, the rides, grounds, water and sewer systems, and electrical infrastructure — all while grappling with a decline in attendance.
“It’s like a little village. It takes a lot of money to keep it going,” he said. “Every year the park has
deteriorated to a certain point, especially the last two years.”
Brown said it was estimated that it would cost roughly $2 million to complete the necessary upgrades and repairs.
“You hope to only invest in a business that you know is going to progress,” he said.
Government assistance, he added, would not change the fact that the revenue collected at the gates each season was not enough to cover the costs associated with keeping the park open.
Upper Clements employed roughly 150 people last summer, including 60 students.
In 2019, there were 12 days lost to rain. In recent years it wasn’t unusual for rides not to be running — sometimes for extended periods — because they had broken down and/or parts were hard to come by.
Brown said the board had three options to consider this winter: sell the land and associated assets, find the money to upgrade the park without the promise of financial stability in the future, or file for bankruptcy.
“Our board didn’t make this decision lightly. It came to a head that the money is not there, the business is failing or has failed.”
IN WITH THE NEW
The site has been selected for a proposed $62-million boarding school that was first announced in 2018.
“I think it will be better for the area than the park because the park was unstable for a number of years,” said Brown.
The municipality will take on all of the assets managed by the society — the land, the buildings, the rides, etc. — after the sale, Brown said.
“Once the sale goes through, there won’t be any money left and there won’t be any debt left,” he said.
Brown is hopeful the proposed Gordonstoun development will eventually make up for what was lost with the closure of Upper Clements Park.
“It’s sort of a short-term pain for a long-term gain,” he said.
Warden Timothy Habinski explained the rationale behind council agreeing to purchase the theme park properties for the Gordonstoun project via email March 19.
“As per our approval from Municipal Affairs and Housing, Annapolis County must own the land upon which we build a portion of the Gordonstoun Nova Scotia Campus,”
he said. “Our approved portion of capital funding will not exceed $7.2 million. Gordonstoun Nova Scotia will pay a fee whereby Annapolis County will fully recover the $7.2 million.”
Habinski acknowledged that the employment generated by the amusement park “had a tremendous impact” on the economy, but he stressed that “Upper Clements Park would not have opened this coming year.”
He said Gordonstoun Nova Scotia stands to boost local and provincial economies alike by creating jobs and spinoffs that will benefit businesses.
The municipality has been working with Gordonstoun
Scotland and project developer Ed Farren to bring the school to Annapolis County.
“Gordonstoun has provided a written commitment that they will build a school on the proposed site, and their press release concurs, Habinski said. “The purchase of land for the development indicates the seriousness of council’s intention. We plan to bring the Gordonstoun Nova Scotia project to completion.”
The warden said construction will begin once certain milestones are met.
“When we draw near to a required milestone supported by an agreement or agreements with Annapolis County, then decisions will be made in open council meetings.”
The County of Annapolis has yet to decide what will be done with the theme park equipment included in the purchase.
“We have already received requests,” Habinski said.