Pollardville, Stockton's bygone Ghost Town Amusement Park

I was a gunslinger in the Ghost Town and an actor in the Palace. It was a decade that changed my life and I'm so heartbroken that it's gone. Thank you for this great docu-series. You did a good job.

Sadly, you mentioned that families "use to" enjoy activities together such as Pollardville. There were so many more places a family could have experienced together in the Stockton area, but are now in the past memories of those who knew them. Here are a few examples: Pollardville, Hammer Skate, Manteca Water Park, Water Slides and Miniature Golf on Hammer and West Lane, Naughty Nicks, and a slew of movie theaters razed by the bulldozer. All gone in a very short twenty years.

I remember that place when I was younger, back in the 90’s. My family were big Japanese farmers and we farmed land around that area. My cousin Wayne took me to the Chicken Kitchen to grab lunch for me, my older cousin Wayne, and my Uncle Jimmy. I miss those days. Thank you for the memories

I was born and raised in Lodi and I have been there several times. The last time was when I was in college in 1982. You sat in the theater that was set up with tables and you ate chicken while you cheered the hero and hissed at the villain. It was so much good, wholesome, delicious, kitschy fun. Man, this video made me so nostalgic for those times. Not much out there in the US that's like it anymore. A piece of lost Americana. Thanks for doing this video. It made my day.

That was my Dad, D.W. Landingham pictured shaking hands with Claude Akins.

John Hoffman was my great grandmother's second husband. And one of the young men in the photos with him is my grandfather. Thank you for this video!

I can remember going there when I was 4 or 5 years old with my grandfather. Those times were glorious! I can also remember the honor of working there as a young adult in the "Showboat," and in the street performing gunfights in the later years; shortly before it closed. Your historical endeavor, good sir, is well done in my opinion. I enjoyed the trip into the/my past, even though it did bring a tear to my eye. Bravo!

Thanks for doing this. My wife and I took the very last ride on the Chicken Kitchen Railroad. We still have our tickets! The train had a motor from a Chevy Corvair and was honestly geared a bit too fast. It took a lot of clutch slipping to get it rolling. Along the north side of the Steamboat building between it and the property line fence was a long lean-to where the train spent its time when not running. The Steamboat actually had a basement, and for many years in the 70's, there was a huge HO gage model railroad layout in there. They had an open house one year and the Stockton Record newspaper did a story. My picture, taken while watching a train go by, appeared in the story. The train tracks went over the pond and to the back of the property line, near the KWIN FM broadcast tower that used to be back there. In 2007, a new tower for KWIN was built on the other side of Eight Mile Road, and the old 340 foot tower behind Pollardville was unceremoniously cut down and allowed to fall. I have video of that if you wish. That tower coming down, and the resulting loss of income from the radio station renting that ground for the tower for decades happened because the land was to be sold to a housing developer who had plans to build expensive homes on the Pollardville site. Then, after the land was cleared, the "great recession" of 2008 happened. The plans for homes to be built where Pollardville once stood were cancelled, and the land remains in limbo as you see now. It's a real shame.

Thank you for this video.🥲. I was born and raised in Stockton, and this site (park) will always have a piece in my memory as long as I live.

I was a pimply faced teen in 1970 when I went to Pollardville for a "Battle of the Bands" for all the garage bands in the area. Most pounded out bad renditions of Born to be Wild.

When I was a kid, my mother and I would drive from Sacramento to Capitola about once a month to visit my grandfather. In those days that required driving south on U.S.99 then west on U.S. 50. We would always stop at Pollardville for a chicken dinner. A vivid memory I have was looking in the newspaper box at Pollardville and reading the headline announcing that Alaska had been made the 49th state.

Such a big part of my childhood. When I was just a kid my parents took me there every six months to see the shows at the Palace, until I was finally old enough to be onstage myself, just before my 16th birthday. I lost track how many shows I actually did...best times of my life, made lifelong friendships with many wonderful people. Closed the last show on that stage on Oct. 30, 1992 a few months pregnant with my now 26 year old daughter. There will never be another Palace Showboat Dinner Theater, or Pollardville.

Grew up coming here. My brother was an actor and gunslinger. Great video! Thanks for the memories.

Went to the Showboat Theater. They were putting on an old western play and actually encouraged ' audience participation '. The cast members were at the doors on the way out to thank people for being there. Was a great place. Wow. The Post Office from Mt. Ranch. Turned into a hotdog stand across from Senders Market.

Nicely done. I managed to go to the ghost town a few times. One time my (adult) stepbrother was locked in the jail by John Hoffman for at least 15 minutes while Sheriff John tried to sweet talk my older sister. Unfortunately she didn't take to him and finally John let the step-bother out, darn it. One cute attraction they had was a wooden box, probably 4 feet by 4 feet close to the the town entrance. It was covered with hardware cloth and had big red warning signs all around it. "CAUTION baby rattlers! Stay back. Do not put hands near box!" Naturally everyone had to step up and look and in the bottom of the box was 8 or 10 plastic baby's rattles. Always good for a laugh to watch people look in. After the ghost town closed I still went to the restaurant 3 or 4 times for the best chicken-fried steak around.

Went here dozens of times with family as a child, then with my own children as an adult. Always has a great time, the decor had alot of history, you could eat in a covered wagon or a jail cell, and the catfish nuggets were delicious.

Lodi, Load-eye not Load-ee. It's named after a town in Italy.

I was born and grew up for most of my life in stockton. Always drove by pollardville as a little kid in the late 90's but never went in. Kinda sad now that I love learning about history that we cant go there and enjoy what was once an amazing looking place.

Thanks so much for covering this piece of local history. Back in 2013 I ran a twice daily route between Sacramento and Stockton and had always wondered what had been there other than a chicken restaurant. I would have loved to have taken my family there.

Wow - VERY well done! I grew up about a quarter mile away in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, and came from a lower middle-class family. That’s important because it was a real treat when my parents would take us there for dinner. The chicken was the best chicken on the planet, and they served a salad as a side dish that was equally great. We would spend afternoons in the ghost town - - it seemed like Sheriff John was always in a gunfight. A nice man, but he always had a mean look on his face that made him scary as hell. I always had a lot of fun when we would go to the shows inside the riverboat, and in the early ‘80’s I lived next door to a couple that were actors in the shows...they were fun as hell and occasionally invited me to a show, then backstage where they all knew how to party! Thanks for taking me down memory lane!