Rose Island (amusement park)

Rose Island

Site of suspension bridge to Rose Island
Location	Charlestown, Indiana, U.S.
Owner	E.B. Rose
Opened	1923
Closed	1937
Rides
Total	2
Roller coasters	1

Rose Island is an abandoned amusement park near Charlestown, Indiana, situated on a peninsula (the "Devil's Backbone") created by Fourteen Mile Creek emptying into the Ohio River. It was a recreational area known as Fern Grove in the 1880s, mostly used as a church camp. It was so named due to the many ferns that grew there. The Louisville and Jeffersonville Ferry Company acquired it and developed it in order to increase the use of its ferry business. As Fern Grove it thrived on church picnics and family outings.

In 1923 David Rose purchased the property, added an amusement park, hotel, and swimming pool, spending $250,000 in the process, and renamed it Rose Island. It included a wooden coaster, termed a racing derby and named the Devil's Backbone in honor of the rock formation, and a Ferris wheel. There were wolves in a pen, monkeys in a cage, and a black bear named Teddy Roosevelt. There was also a combined dance hall/ice rink. In total, the park was 118 acres (0.48 km²). To access it, people either took a steamboat or they drove to a footbridge. One of the steamboats was called Idlewild, which would later become the Belle of Louisville. Others were the Steamer America, City of Cincinnati, and the Columbia. A steam ride from Louisville to Rose Island would take 90 minutes-120 minutes, due to the steamboats only going 7–8 miles per hour. There were also speedboats, such as the Vivianne III, that could quickly take businessmen back to Louisville. A ticket to ride the steamboat from Madison was 50 cents. The footbridge was a wooden swinging bridge 50 feet (15 m) above the creek and easily swayed.