Theme & Amusement Parks in Covington

On October 5, 1905, years of invention and failure culminated into history as Wilbur Wright took to the sky in a craft that soared through the air for 24 miles. More than a century later, just a few miles from the field over which it first flew, the 1905 Wright Flyer III—now designated a National Historic Landmark—spreads its wings at Carillon Historical Park, inspiring visitors with its tale of innovation, persistence, and progress, and the aptly named "Wilbur Wright: A Life of Consequence" exhibit. Nearby, the park's Heritage Center features the year-round Carousel of Dayton Innovation, which contains 31 figures, a 38-foot hand-painted mural illustrating the turn of events in the Wright Brothers flying exhibits, and rides for $1.

As impressive as they are, the airplane and carousel are only a few of Carillon Historical Park’s myriad attractions. Named for the 151-foot-tall Deeds Carillon, whose 57 bells have been pealing since 1942, the campus spreads across 65 acres. Just south of downtown, 30 historical buildings, including the 28,000 sq.ft. Heritage Center of Dayton Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship, draw visitors into Dayton’s past and share in the park's devotion to history, heritage, and progress. Early settlement structures such as the Newcom Tavern—the oldest building still standing in Dayton—sit alongside other original buildings such as an 1815-era stone cottage. The park also includes replica buildings, such as the Deeds Barn and the Wright Cycle Shop, which recreate the birthplaces of the automobile self-starter and the airplane.

The park’s transportation theme continues with an 1835 B&O steam locomotive and an interactive 1/8 scale railroad available to ride on select days for an extra fee and whose train cars carry passengers more effectively than 1/8 scale feet would. Nearby, the first Chevy S-10 truck minted by GM’s Moraine Plant in 1988 mingles with a fleet of vintage and classic autos. After admiring their hulls, visitors can swing by Culp’s Café—named and modeled after the eatery where widow and mother of six Charlotte Gilbert Culp served pies in the '30s and '40s—and order burgers or soda-fountain creations off a '40s-style menu. Before leaving, guests can peruse Wright brothers paraphernalia and items from the park’s 1930s letterpress printing shop at the museum store or sign up for educational programming that teaches lost arts such as candle dipping and butter churning.

Great-white sharks, silverback gorillas, and bengal tigers guard the nine holes of That Fun Place's phosphorescent mini-golf course. That’s where families tap neon golf balls through aquatic and jungle landscapes before kids holster putters to climb through the padded three-story playground. After slipping through tunnels and peering through portholes, groups reconvene at the bumper cars to slam into each other under more black lights. Meanwhile, in the laser-tag arena, kids and adults slink through rainforests and space ships to fire the same photons that render alien skin smooth and hairless.

Outside, carnival games and roller coasters envelop visitors in natural light, and children mine for gems and arrowheads at the wooden sluicing contraption. With a full-service pizza parlor on site and an arcade filled with more than 40 games, That Fun Place can also host birthday parties for up to 22 guests.

Winning best haunted house in Active Dayton's 2011 Best of Dayton awards and lauded by the bloggers of Ohio Valley Haunts for a "very loud soundtrack [that] assaults the senses in accompaniment to the various atrocities," the designers of Dayton's Haunted Butcher House horrify guests with new macabre spectacles each year. Characters, such as clowns wielding meat cleavers and the undead springing forth from oversize jack-in-the-boxes, are just some of the haunts that have rattled visitors in years past on the unguided tour. To further heighten fear levels, the building itself becomes another character, confounding the living with moving floors, strobe lights, and mysterious voices that predict another year of slow economic growth.

As autumn winds sweep over the pools of the Splash Moraine water park, the summer crowds flee from the coming of Slash Moraine—a terrifying yearly event that transforms the park's beaches into haunted swamps. Live actors garbed in gruesome attire prowl the abandoned grounds searching for groups to scare under the flashing strobe lights as macabre scenes of ghouls, ghosts, and foul play further play to humans' natural fear of pageantry.

Shrill giggles and the pitter-patter of tiny, sock-swathed feet echo off the walls of Pump It Up, where lilliputian guests pinball through a metropolis of inflatable slides and bouncy enclosures. During glow pop-in play, tykes frolic in the radiance of special lights, and in pirate-themed sessions, youngsters don costumes or just feel less self-conscious about the parrot permanently affixed to their shoulder. Small groups of ankle-biters tear through the facility during private parties, plummeting down slides, scaling plush ladders, and bounding off of springy floors.