Somewhere in the United States of America there’s a very strange broken-down old amusement park that harbours a sad tale behind why it went to rack and ruin.
It was once a thriving cement factory, then it was supposed to be a children’s amusement park, and now it’s a wasteland that sits at the heart of a mystery.
The park was supposed to be called Cementland – honestly that’s not the strangest thing about it, either – and it was the brainchild of sculptor Bob Cassilly.
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Cassilly had the idea for the 54-acre attraction outside St Louis in Missouri after seeing how the once-flourishing factory had shut down and become a dumping ground for construction companies to leave their waste.
It started to fall into disrepair before Cassilly took it over and started to build strange projects there.
His idea was to create a place of wonder that celebrated architecture, history, and the American landscape.
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In an interview back in 2000, Cassilly said: “They talk about historic districts and stuff like that but one of the main things is, our architecture is basically copying stuff from Europe.
"But our industry, it’s kind of like jazz, it’s an American, original thing. Why not look at it for what it is? It’s impressive. it might be threatening, but you can’t help but be impressed by it.”
Ultimately his dream was never realised because of a tragic accident on the site while it was being turned into an art amusement park.
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While Cementland was being created, Cassilly was run over by a bulldozer and killed.
That was on September 26, 2011 when he was just 61-years-old.
Here’s where the mystery comes in, though.
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Cassilly’s wife and several medical experts have long suggested that his death was no accident.
In fact, in 2016 a physician called Dr Arthur Combs looked over the autopsy reports again and suggested the sculptor was beaten to death before the scene was make to look like an accident.
Still, since then Cementland has continued to degrade away, with further damage occurring when a fire took hold and collapsed the roof.
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At one point security was hired, but these days it doesn’t seem as if anyone is there to protect the site.
In the present day, the theme park remains incomplete and stands as an eerie monument to a dead man’s dream, and to the mystery and controversy that surrounds his death.
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Tom Wood