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Mountain Park At 5000 Westpark Dr.


hadooga

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That big hill at 610/59 was definitely a waterslide at one point. My brother's girlfriend (at the time) worked there, so I'd rike my bike over & she'd let me ride for free. I was trying really hard to remember when that was, but I know that I was either nearly out of elementary or just starting junior high - so that would put it around '80-'82 ?

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  • 1 year later...

MOUNTAIN PARK was a place for kids...built on an artificial hill. It was right on the corner of 1-10 and 610...just about a mile south of Northwest Mall. In the ealy 80's, the place would be FULL on weekends...it had that whole hippie-'Big Blue Marble type feel. I remember they had the first 'ball room' (a pit full of colored plastic balls for kids to drown in) that I'd ever seen. We went there on a field trip once: I went to Oak Forest Elementary. The field trip was in 81 or 82, I think.

Anyone else remember?

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MOUNTAIN PARK was a place for kids...built on an artificial hill. It was right on the corner of 1-10 and 610...just about a mile south of Northwest Mall. Anyone else remember?

Nope, but I do remember the artificial ski mountain some crazy person or company made that was located near the intersection of 610 and Hwy 59S. I couldn't believe they would actually believe the ice would not melt! Hello? Texas heat! Funny. :blink:

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MOUNTAIN PARK was a place for kids...built on an artificial hill. It was right on the corner of 1-10 and 610...just about a mile south of Northwest Mall. In the ealy 80's, the place would be FULL on weekends...it had that whole hippie-'Big Blue Marble type feel. I remember they had the first 'ball room' (a pit full of colored plastic balls for kids to drown in) that I'd ever seen. We went there on a field trip once: I went to Oak Forest Elementary. The field trip was in 81 or 82, I think.

Anyone else remember?

We had a Mountasia off I-10 and Wilcrest, and Malibu around 6-10 and I-10, no recollection of Mountain Park though.

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I remember Mountain Park well, but it wasn't at 6-10/ I-10, it was at 6-10 and 59 - across 6-10 from the old Houston Post building. I think I went a couple of times from 2nd-4th grade (early-mid 80's). I remember that the hill at that time was not ice, but that you went down either in bags or dry sled like things (it's hazy as it's been a long time). I just remember going down the hill fast. I also remember the ball pit now that you mention it and I remember doing cool crafts there. I think I went on a field trip and for a birthday party during those years. I'm not sure when it closed, but I know the hill was there for quite awhile - maybe used for something else later on. So, yes there are others that remember that place - you are not alone.

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I remember Mountain Park well, but it wasn't at 6-10/ I-10, it was at 6-10 and 59 - across 6-10 from the old Houston Post building. I think I went a couple of times from 2nd-4th grade (early-mid 80's). I remember that the hill at that time was not ice, but that you went down either in bags or dry sled like things (it's hazy as it's been a long time). I just remember going down the hill fast. I also remember the ball pit now that you mention it and I remember doing cool crafts there. I think I went on a field trip and for a birthday party during those years. I'm not sure when it closed, but I know the hill was there for quite awhile - maybe used for something else later on. So, yes there are others that remember that place - you are not alone.

There was a small ampitheatre there for a while; kind of a mini-Woodlands, except with reserved seating in the back and the lawn/moshpit up front.

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First it was a ski-mountain...then it was a waterslide with arts and crafts rooms and a huge pirate ship to play on...then it was a nursery which looked cool during the holidays because the entire hill was nothing but lights and Christmas trees!...then it was Lone Star Amphitheatre which surprisingly hosted some big name concerts. The hill simply disappeared due to the right of way for Westpark Tollway. Since there's nothing left to do in Houston anymore, I would think it would have done well in this day and age....either some cool waterslides or...imagine it covered in a racetrack for go carts going up and down the hills and bends!! Houston's "fun" days are over! There will always be something to say and something much better about the ambience, fun and excitement of a simple arcade, putt-putt, theme park, go-kart-track, and waterslide versus sitting in a room staring at a tv screen with a 50 button video game controller in your hand! I don't knock video games, as I am an avid player and collector myself. But we have to admit....things are different!

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Nope, but I do remember the artificial ski mountain some crazy person or company made that was located near the intersection of 610 and Hwy 59S. I couldn't believe they would actually believe the ice would not melt! Hello? Texas heat! Funny. :blink:

the "snow" was to be plastic with what looked to be extremely small and thin mushroom shaped structures so as you skied it would be like skying on tall thin flexable little mushrooms all crammed together extremely dense

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Houston's "fun" days are over! There will always be something to say and something much better about the ambience, fun and excitement of a simple arcade, putt-putt, theme park, go-kart-track, and waterslide versus sitting in a room staring at a tv screen with a 50 button video game controller in your hand! I don't knock video games, as I am an avid player and collector myself. But we have to admit....things are different!

Got to admit you are exactly correct!

With the advent of home computers, vid games, Ipods and all this modern electronic crapola the temptation to stay indoors is even more alluring to kids. Obesity will increase, health issues, etc. :unsure:

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Got to admit you are exactly correct!

With the advent of home computers, vid games, Ipods and all this modern electronic crapola the temptation to stay indoors is even more alluring to kids. Obesity will increase, health issues, etc. :unsure:

Kids do like scooters, though. They are everywhere, on my block. I never had one, just those awful skates with a key, oh, and a skateboard. I always wanted a schwinn bike with that pretty sparkly banana seat. Wasn't in the family budget. :o

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I definitely remember Mountain Park at 59 and 610... as a kid, it seemed like there were about a billion Leggos in a play room for us to toy with.

Speaking of 'fun-plexes' in the 80's... does anyone remember the "Games People Play" complex at Beechnut and Fondren, near HBU (I think there's a CVS there right now)? Furthermore, for all of the kids in Southwest Houston, anyone recall a "Peppermint Park" near Beltway 8 and 59? All these places bring back good memories when life was easy :)

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First it was a ski-mountain...then it was a waterslide with arts and crafts rooms and a huge pirate ship to play on...then it was a nursery which looked cool during the holidays because the entire hill was nothing but lights and Christmas trees!...then it was Lone Star Amphitheatre which surprisingly hosted some big name concerts. The hill simply disappeared due to the right of way for Westpark Tollway. Since there's nothing left to do in Houston anymore, I would think it would have done well in this day and age....either some cool waterslides or...imagine it covered in a racetrack for go carts going up and down the hills and bends!! Houston's "fun" days are over! There will always be something to say and something much better about the ambience, fun and excitement of a simple arcade, putt-putt, theme park, go-kart-track, and waterslide versus sitting in a room staring at a tv screen with a 50 button video game controller in your hand! I don't knock video games, as I am an avid player and collector myself. But we have to admit....things are different!

and even farther back it was a motocross track. Seems to me that was the late 60's or early 70's when it was open.

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Not sure about the motocross thing, but I'd say the date was mid to late 70's because I remember watching it being built.

Now I may be way, way off but didn't this "mountain" begin as an abandoned attempt at some type of overpass or entrance/exit ramp for either Westpark, 610 or 59?

I remember it sitting for a long time unused, then suddenly it was a ski slope made of plastic sheet's. :lol:

There was a water slide down the north facing side of it for a while too.

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I definitely remember Mountain Park at 59 and 610... as a kid, it seemed like there were about a billion Leggos in a play room for us to toy with.

Speaking of 'fun-plexes' in the 80's... does anyone remember the "Games People Play" complex at Beechnut and Fondren, near HBU (I think there's a CVS there right now)? Furthermore, for all of the kids in Southwest Houston, anyone recall a "Peppermint Park" near Beltway 8 and 59? All these places bring back good memories when life was easy :)

Heck yeah I remember Games People Play/Putt Putt.

Remember how if you got a hole in one while the colored light was on that matched your ball, you got a free game? Those were great times!

Thoses were also some of the fastest go carts around. :P

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Around 1972-1974 Mountain Park really was a MotoCross track. Typically, the races were Friday Nights under the Lights. I remember going there to watch some friends of mine race.

Edited by Propps
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  • 10 years later...
  • 1 year later...

It had to be early 80s in terms of Peppermint Park as I went there as a kid in the early 80s. There was no Beltway so it took forever to get there from where I lived.

 

I remember multiple go-cart tracks in Houston as there was a Malibu off 59

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10 hours ago, neuman said:

The original Peppermint Park was on the North loop near TC Jester.  It moved to 59 south in the 80's or 90's.

The "original" Peppermint Park was in Pasadena. In about 1959 it moved to the large hunk of land between the Gulf Freeway & Reveille (Texas 35) with access to the parking lot from either the freeway frontage road or Reveille. Obviously that was before the I45/I610 interchange existed. I don't know when (or to where) they moved from there but they were still there in late '63 when I left Houston.

Edited by ernie5823
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  • 1 year later...
On 5/16/2020 at 7:00 AM, ernie5823 said:

The "original" Peppermint Park was in Pasadena. In about 1959 it moved to the large hunk of land between the Gulf Freeway & Reveille (Texas 35) with access to the parking lot from either the freeway frontage road or Reveille. Obviously that was before the I45/I610 interchange existed. I don't know when (or to where) they moved from there but they were still there in late '63 when I left Houston.

It was in the gulfgate parking lot close to where 45 and 610 meet

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  • The title was changed to Mountain Park At 5000 Westpark Dr.
  • 2 months later...

Very interesting site! Looks like there was 2 separate race tracks in its life span. One an oval track and the other a motocross zigzag track?

In 1995 you can see the amphitheater. It only stood there a few years before TxDOT took over.

The 1972 motorcycle track had an address of 5100 Westpark Drive.  Mountain Park had a slightly different address of 5000 Westpark Drive.

From the magazine Cycle News dated 10/17/1972:

MOTOCROSS, Houston MX Pk., 5100 Westpark, Houston, Tex. $5 mail, 7114 Atwell, Houston, 77036; $7.50 gate. Gate 6, prac. 7. All classes/Mini/PP. Les Lowry, 713/774-9945.

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From the book Houston: Your Complete Guide to Texas' Largest City dated in 1985:

Mountain Park - 5000 Westpark - Southwest - 668-4300.

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1973, hill/mountain:

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1976, oval track:

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1983, zigzag track:

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1989, multiple hills: Amphitheater construction?

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1995, Amphitheater:

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2002, all demolished:

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2023, TxDOT freeways and the HCFCD water retention project:

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