Fairytale Forest
*Since the creation of this post Fairy-Tale Forest has been restored, please do not attempt to trespass on the property*The story of Fairytale Forest shares many parallels with the Gingerbread Castle, a project of similar motivation and scope. However, as is often the case - Two artists working from relatively similar concepts ended up with wildly different results. Paul Woehle Sr., then a 40 year old German immigrant to the US, began building Fairytale Forest with his own hands in 1955. With help from his two sons, he was able to complete the project in two years, and it opened to the public in 1957.
Woehle
chose to rely on more dispersed, smaller-scale exhibits than the
aforementioned Gingerbread Castle. Instead of constructing an entire
environment from scratch, he used the forest, more than capable of
being mysterious and fantastical on its own, as a canvas. A winding
path led guests through the woods, and along the way they were able
to glimpse key moments from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. More than
20 cottages sat nestled in the trees, their interiors depicting
frozen scenes from the most famous children's stories. Though
visitors could not actually enter the buildings, they could peek
through the windows to see what was unfolding within. A small plaque
on each cottage gave a brief summary of what could be expected
within, be it the Gingerbread Man escaping his oven, or the three
bears debating what to do with a sleeping Goldilocks. In
winter, the forest was decorated to bursting with lights,
transforming it into a winter wonderland the likes of which can
nowadays rarely be found outside of story books. Those visiting the
forest in winter could expect to be greeted by Frosty the Snowman and
a cup of hot chocolate. Santa Claus awaited eager youngsters in his
Christmas House, and gently interrogated each for his or her
Christmas wishes.
As
time went on Fairytale Forest came to be looked upon more as a relic
than an actual amusement park, and in 2003 the dwindling visitors
eventually forced the park to close. It did not take long for decay
to set in, and what was once a technicolor forest of whimsy grew to
look more akin to a location of genocide on fairytale creatures. The
doors of paint-peeled cottages are kicked in, their former residents
torn apart or missing entirely. Viewing windows are smashed, and
everywhere broken Christmas lights litter the forest floor. While we
abhor those who vandalize any building, this was much more personal
in nature. What follows are personal thoughts from Rusty Tagliareni,
reflecting upon his personal accounts from the day filming.
“Though
my last visit here was probably at the age of five or six, memories
came rushing back as I wandered the silent forest. I caught myself
remembering the Christmas Village with the elves packing toys for
children as holiday music hummed from speakers hidden high in the
trees. I recalled, in surprisingly vivid detail, having to stand on
tip-toe to see through the window on Snow White's house. I also
remembered with a smile, a much younger me wondering if the
gingerbread house was really made of gingerbread. The memories
superimposed themselves over the carnage I was actually witnessing,
and it was all I could do finish my work as quickly as possible and
just leave the place behind. As we returned to the Jeep, the skies
grew dark with rain.” ~Rusty
Surprisingly
the story doesn't end here, in a dark patch of woods scattered with
bits of decomposing nostalgia. Against what seems like all odds,
Fairytale Forest is poised to be reborn in the fall of 2018, with the grounds
once again helmed by a member of the founding family. We truly hope
the project succeeds so that those who remember Fairytale Forest as
it were may bring their own children to experience the wonder found
in that patch of woods in Oak Ridge, New Jersey.
Snow White's cottage lost in the trees.
Frosty's Christmas village was once the highlight of the winter months at Fairytale Forest.
Davy Crockett fights a grizzly(?) bear.
The shadow of Rapunzel's knight remains long after he set off for parts unknown.
This is an older video of ours. When watching, you may notice that it has a different "feel" to it than our current-day films. This is because the style of our cinematography has progressed over time, and our equipment has changed and improved throughout the years. We have chosen to leave our older videos available for viewing online to illustrate the evolution of our work.