Amusement Park News

There's something new dropping – maybe – at Portland's historic Oaks Amusement Park. The park has proposed the construction of a 147-foot drop tower ride to be built near the center of the 44-acre property at Sellwood Riverfront Park.

The midway ride would be just one part of a major renovation project scheduled to start this year. Park CEO Brandon Roben filed with the city in December requesting two zoning changes. The first would be to increase the park's maximum structure height restriction from 30 feet to 147 feet to accommodate the new ride, and the second was to permit new exterior lighting for the installation of six lights replicating 1900s era historic Oaks Park fixtures with incandescent bulb illumination. Oaks Amusement Park already has rides that are considerably taller than the 30-foot limit.

Oaks Park first opened in 1905. It's one of the oldest continually operating amusement parks in the county and has been both owned and operated by the Oaks Park Association since 1985.

Currently, the park houses attractions that include the Oaks Park train, an historic carousel, mini golf, midway games, a dance pavilion, and the oldest roller-skating rink in the U.S. It's also home to thrill rides such as the 72-foot-tall Adrenaline Peak coaster, the Disc'O dip ride, Zero Gravity, and a smaller drop tower, the Tree Top Drop, among some 24 rides, which also include kiddie rides, bumper cars, and a Ferris wheel. Another thrill ride, Zamperla's AtmosFEAR extreme pendulum, caused controversy last summer when riders were stranded upside-down for approximately 30 minutes, 50-feet in the air. The ride had to be manually lowered.

Marketing and Events Director Emily MacKay, explains that the proposed new thrill ride will take riders 120 feet up before dropping them with a sudden swoop –then stopping gently via a magnetic braking system. The ride would have LED lights outlining the structure.

She notes that the ride will serve as the centerpiece to a bigger plan to refurbish the park to celebrate this year's 120th anniversary of Oaks Park. She points out that “It's important for us to have new attractions to keep the place interesting and fun for the community...”



Drop towers are popular worldwide she explains, adding that “A drop tower takes you up in the air nice and high, and you'll get a beautiful view of the surrounding area” before it suddenly makes its dramatic drop.  She calls the ride “A big thrill, very exciting.”

However, the drop tower proposal has drawn complaints from some of the park's neighbors as well as environmental groups, with Urban Green Spaces Institute director Mike Houck calling it a threat to wildlife, including birds. The bright lights of the drop tower, which can adversely affect migrating birds, are a special concern, Houck says.

Oaks Park is located along the banks of the 160-acre Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, the largest such refuge in Portland. The local non-profit Friends of Oaks Bottom also objects to the newly proposed ride, calling it an “eyesore” that will adversely affect the view from neighboring residences, and flood into the homes surrounding the park on both sides of the river, as well as being a concern for birds and other wildlife. The group has posted an open letter opposing the proposed zoning changes. Friends of Oak Bottom co-founder Ezra Cohen says the ride will not be “conducive to protecting wildlife” because of the light which could disorient birds.

Despite these objections, Oaks Park has been a good neighbor in the community, neighbors admit.

And according to MacKay, the park has been supportive of the wildlife refuge. “We've been working for several years on a large-scale, multiyear refurbishment and rejuvenation project focusing on preserving our historic structures, bringing exciting new attractions to our visitors, improving accessibility for the community, and completing significant bank restoration and invasive species mitigation while enhancing landscaping and green spaces,” she asserts.

She says that the drop tower ride and the new lighting that the park is planning will both be located in the middle of the amusement park's 44-acre property. That placement will put the drop tower and lights more than 250 feet away from the Willamette River and some 500 feet plus from the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. With the majority of the drop tower's operating time taking place during daylight hours, MacKay relates that the potential for visual disruption would be highly limited.  The lights will be on primarily during the day, as the park operates from March to September. The park typically closes between 7 and 8 p.m., when it is often still light out, with two exceptions: the Fourth of July and Oktoberfest, when the park has extended hours.

As MacKay attests, the park's regular months and hours of operation mean that that there will only be “a handful of days” when the ride will be alight after dark.

The operation of Oaks Park is somewhat of a balancing act, per the Oaks Park Association's mission statement, between providing for and preserving the operation of the historic amusement park and offering stewardship of the nature surrounding it.

Public commentary on the rezoning closed on January 16th, so for now both the park and the neighborhood and wildlife groups must wait for a decision, which will come within 120 days. The park opened for the year March 22nd; If approved, MacKay says that the ride will open for the park's 2026 operating season.