MOOSIC — Two local business partners bought the long-vacant, 203-acre site of the former Rocky Glen amusement park for $2.5 million as an investment for some sort of future development.
Shawn Walsh, who owns Montage Motors in Minooka and SW Walsh Properties LLC that has dozens of commercial properties, and Rich Conte, who owns Conte Paving in Moosic, say they do not have definitive plans for the property. First, they intend to rebuild an old dam on site to fully restore the 33-acre Rocky Glen Pond that defines a large part of the property.
“We want to save the lake and hopefully we can have some nice development down there,” said Walsh, who also is a member of the Scranton Zoning Board. “We bought this project with no plans — zero plans — and that’s no lie. We bought this as an investment. We want to bring something that we’re proud of down there and we’re open to ideas.”
About 60% of the Rocky Glen site is zoned commercial and the rest is zoned residential, Conte said, adding “so we have some options” for what to do with the property.
The damming over a century ago of Stafford Meadow Brook flowing through the property created the Rocky Glen Pond and its spillway section, which currently are not filled to former high-water levels.
Restoring the dam and body of water is their first order of business, and that will take time and millions of dollars in out-of-pocket costs before any other construction occurs, they said. They hope to get started on rebuilding the dam soon and that could take 6-8 months to complete.
“I think we’d have a better idea, after that dam, of where we’re going with the property,” Walsh said.
They have no plans to put a data center on the site that’s generally bounded by Rocky Glen Road, Interstate 81, Montage Mountain Road and Glenmaura National Golf Club. Neighbors likely would strongly oppose anything along the lines of a data center, and the site naturally might better lend itself to a mix of residential and commercial development, Walsh said.
The woodsy site has a few remnants of the old amusement park in the form of some concrete, pavement and stone facets and two weathered, faded signs still erected along Rocky Glen Road. But overall, the property bears no resemblance to its amusement heyday, when the park boasted roller coasters, rides and dance halls that drew tens of thousands of visitors each year.
The partners and their park property manager, Ben Thomas, all recall visiting Rocky Glen as youths and are well acquainted with the site and its history. The paving business of Conte, 49, abuts the former park property off Rocky Glen Road. He and Walsh, 48, have been business partners for two decades. Thomas, also 48, noted his father and grandfather both had worked at the park.
Rocky Glen dates to its 1886 founding by Arthur Frothingham as a picnic grove and had changes in ownership over the decades.
A popular outing spot for coal miners and their families on weekends, the park also featured ethnic celebrations reflecting the region’s diversity, according to archives of The Times-Tribune.
In the early 1900s, Frothingham began to add rides and Rocky Glen started to take the shape of amusement park.
It also for many years was a stop on the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad’s Laurel Line electric trolley route, which brought rail passengers from the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas. In the 1920s, the Laurel Line delivered 223,000 people a season to Rocky Glen.
The crowds continued to come to ride the rides and hear big-name musicians such as the Dorsey Brothers and Benny Goodman play in the Crystal Palace, a glass-enclosed pavilion. Other entertainers who performed at Rocky Glen ranged from an up-and-coming Frank Sinatra in 1939 to a budding Bon Jovi in 1985.
The Million Dollar Roller Coaster, with climbs, drops, twists and turns along 4,700 feet of track, peaked at 96 feet high and cost $100,000 to build in 1945. It was dismantled in 1957. The park also hosted all kinds of events, including beauty pageants and boxing, an appearance by the Lone Ranger and “report card day,” when kids with good grades got to ride attractions for free, according to archives of The Times-Tribune.
The park prospered under the management of Ben and Mae Sterling, who ran the operation for 47 years until selling the park in 1970. The site then was turned into Ghost Town in the Glen with a wild-west theme. In the 1980s, the Rocky Glen name was resurrected until the park closed in 1987.
The site then languished for years. A company called White and Black Sand LLC bought the property in December of 2005 from a firm called G.T. Enterprises Inc. But the only thing the site was used for in recent years was for overflow parking for big-name concerts at Montage Mountain.
In December of 2024, White and Black Sand LLC listed the property for sale for $14 million, for 198 acres of residential and commercial zoned land and pond.
“All previous structures have been demolished and this captivating property is a blank slate waiting to be developed,” the listing stated.
At that time, the pond was being drawn down for rehabilitation of the dam built over a century ago and in more recent years declared unsafe by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The old stone-block dam needing either to be rebuilt or removed apparently was a nonstarter for most potential buyers.
“That dam was a big holdup for a lot of people — and the (original) price tag obviously,” Walsh said.
Conte and Walsh kept close tabs on the listing that got no takers and eventually the price started dropping. When the sale price dropped to around $7 million, they knew they might have some room to negotiate, Conte said.
They ended up buying 203 acres for $2.5 million Friday, June 26. The size of the property that was transferred grew from 198 to 203 acres through surveying and the cleaning up of old records, Walsh said.
“It’s a one-in-a-lifetime thing owning something like this,” Walsh said.
The Laurel Line passenger train chugs past the Million Dollar Roller Coaster at Rocky Glen Amusement Park in Moosic. (PHOTO SUMBITTED BY THE GREATER PITTSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY)
The Laurel Line passenger train chugs past the Million Dollar Roller Coaster at Rocky Glen Amusement Park in Moosic. (PHOTO SUMBITTED BY THE GREATER PITTSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY)
Rocky Glen Ventures LLC partners Rich Conte, in front seat, and Shawn Walsh in a all-terrain vehicle they use to get around the 203-acre site of the former Rocky Glen amusement park in Moosic that they bought on June 26, 2026. Photo taken Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
A weathered old sign for the former Rocky Glen amusement park in Moosic on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
An historical marker sign for Rocky Glen Park in Moosic on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
A weathered old sign for the former Rocky Glen amusement park in Moosic on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Owners of the former Rocky Glen Park property Rich Conte, left, and Shawn Walsh, right, pose for a photograph with Ben Thomas, operations manager, on the shore of Rocky Glen Pond on the former park’s property in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Steps lead up to what was once a pavillion overlooking Rocky Glen Park on the property in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Ben Thomas points at the former Rocky Glen Park in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The Rocky Glen Pond on the former Rocky Glen Park property in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A historical marker is seen on Rocky Glen Rd. in Moosic outside of the former Rocky Glen Park property Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Property co-owner Rich Conte drives a UTV through the former Rocky Glen Park in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Co-owner of the former Rocky Glen Park property Rich Conte, describes the grounds near the Rocky Glen spillway in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The Rocky Glen Pond on the former Rocky Glen Park property in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Operations Manager Ben Thomas discusses the former Rocky Glen Park while standing on the park’s property in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Ben Thomas and Rich Conte stand on the former Rocky Glen Park property in Moosic Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Show Caption
1 of 29
The Laurel Line passenger train chugs past the Million Dollar Roller Coaster at Rocky Glen Amusement Park in Moosic. (PHOTO SUMBITTED BY THE GREATER PITTSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY)