Exploring The Abandoned Hard Rock Park - What Remains of Theme Park in Myrtle Beach South Carolina
Hard Rock Park Myrtle Beach SC
Transcript
0:03
there is an ice storm rolling in later
0:03
this evening
0:04
to myrtle beach south carolina
0:07
getting out a little early before the
0:08
ice hits the road they're doing a little
0:11
pre-planning here by dumping salt
0:14
upon the streets just in case it gets a
0:17
little too
0:18
too chilly and frozen over on the
0:20
thoroughfares
0:22
that's what's going on here see that
0:23
truck up there
0:25
just dumped a bunch of ice
0:27
on the overpasses because bridges freeze
0:30
up quicker than
0:31
the roads do
0:33
so we'll stop behind this dump truck
0:35
with ice
0:37
i'm heading over to a couple of
0:40
interesting
0:41
spots that no longer exist anymore
0:43
welcome everyone adam the woo here as
0:46
the recording of this friday january
0:48
21st you can
0:50
almost see my breath 2022
0:53
i meant to say salt
0:55
on the roads not ice they're putting
0:57
salt on the roads to
0:59
deter the ice for drivers a little bit
1:01
later right now it's about 34 degrees
1:03
but it's going to get down to 30 and
1:05
there's some
1:06
sleet and rain in the forecast behind me
1:09
is a former structure
1:11
an abandoned structure i'm standing in
1:12
the parking lot of what was back in 2008
1:16
the hard rock
1:18
park
1:19
hard rock cafe
1:22
the incorporation around that created a
1:24
theme park and this was one of the
1:27
parking lots in fact there was a mall
1:30
that featured a dark ride
1:32
with some of my favorite amusement park
1:34
attractions are dark rides that sat
1:37
right over there there's not a whole
1:38
heck of a lot left the theme park only
1:41
lasted one year
1:43
and then it was sold and went under a
1:45
different name called freestyle park and
1:49
that only lasted like not even another
1:51
year or so there's a really good video
1:54
in a documentary that bright sun films
1:56
put out if you want to watch that you
1:58
can really get a lot of in-depth detail
2:00
this is just more of an update of what
2:02
the property looks like now at the start
2:04
of 2022
2:06
as a new development company obviously
2:08
has taken over and they are starting to
2:10
tear it down
2:12
so i'm going to just show this and then
2:13
i'm going to go buy an abandoned raceway
2:16
that's on the outskirts of town but this
2:18
is one of the few buildings here next to
2:19
the parking lot you can see it has seen
2:22
better days
2:27
before the before the freezing
2:27
before the freezing rain rolls in i'm
2:28
inviting you to join me
2:30
shall you and this is one of those theme
2:32
parks that i never had the ability to
2:34
visit while it was open regretfully i
2:36
wish i would have
2:37
come out here and checked it out but at
2:40
least i'm here now i had the opportunity
2:42
many years ago a decade ago
2:44
to walk around
2:47
six flags new orleans which was jazz
2:49
land then six flags new orleans
2:51
which is sitting empty still to this day
2:54
look at this
2:55
this is pretty awesome
2:57
so this pretty much designates that this
2:59
was part of the property right here on
3:01
the front parking lot this is a a relic
3:05
of theme park history
3:07
was not expecting really to find
3:08
anything
3:09
but this is pretty magnificent this
3:11
guitar
3:12
right here
3:14
look at this just bolted on
3:20
yeah
3:20
there you go that's so that is going to
3:22
be leveled very soon by the heavy
3:24
equipment that is just off to the side
3:28
the parking lot i just drove in
3:33
there is some fence up around where they
3:33
are doing the heavy construction so i'm
3:35
not going to be going over into those
3:37
areas where the heavy equipment is
3:39
but i am going to walk around
3:42
through here oh my gosh
3:45
oh
3:49
is this what i think it is
3:49
this must have been a preview center
3:53
holy cow
4:01
oh my gosh this is like an aerial view
4:01
i'm just going to assume this was a
4:02
preview center
4:04
this is a
4:05
antique relic as well
4:08
so the way it worked was you got hard
4:09
rock park world's first rock and roll
4:12
theme park you have the all access entry
4:16
plaza
4:17
rock and roll heaven over there
4:19
an area for the british invasion there
4:21
was a lagoon
4:23
there was this iconic
4:26
structure there
4:27
of the guitar
4:29
lost in the 70s land born in the usa and
4:32
of course cool country
4:35
and the parking lot
4:37
right here so parking lot there
4:40
and a parking lot up there it looks like
4:42
there's a parking lot
4:43
down here
4:45
now the correlation of where i'm
4:47
standing precisely
4:49
i can't really figure out just looking
4:50
at it
4:51
real quick like but yeah this is
4:54
really cool looks as if someone
4:57
tried to maybe tear it off the wall they
4:59
didn't try very hard though
5:02
look at that oh my gosh
5:04
not a whole heck of a lot else in here
5:06
the roof isn't in the
5:08
the best shape got a little rain on my
5:11
lens
5:12
all right i'm going to go and just kind
5:13
of drive around
5:15
the perimeter of where the park was and
5:17
try to point out where
5:19
a few things were
5:21
wow i've already found a couple good
5:23
things i wasn't expecting to find
5:24
anything at the brick pillars here
5:27
and then the rock work
5:29
into this little
5:30
probably a topiary here at one point or
5:32
some sort of statue
5:34
walking out this way
5:36
now as i was saying heavy equipment so
5:38
there is a lot of rubble
5:40
over there where
5:42
the little shopping mall that had the
5:44
dark ride in it and then the park itself
5:46
you can see medieval times is still way
5:48
over there on the horizon
5:50
and the lagoon would be over in that
5:51
area but a lot of this fence is falling
5:54
down
5:55
now i'm not going to be trouncing around
5:57
over
5:58
in that area where the heavy equipment
6:00
is but i will just kind of drive along
6:01
this fence line
6:03
to see what i can see it is gusty out
6:06
here holding the camera with one hand on
6:07
the umbrella with the other you can see
6:09
a couple of those brick pillars now the
6:11
rides were all sold off
6:13
a few years ago and shipped to other
6:16
theme park attractions all over the
6:18
world so there's no rides left out here
6:20
anymore but
6:21
there were quite a few of kind of
6:22
extreme coasters
6:24
it seemed like a pretty fun place you
6:26
can see on satellite view the items are
6:28
still there
6:29
so there was the where the lagoon was
6:31
and the attractions coasters
6:34
buildings
6:36
and this little blue dot over here is me
6:38
so the little strip area where the mall
6:40
was
6:41
with the dark ride was right in there
6:44
so that can kind of use this as bearings
6:46
and try to figure out kind of what i'm
6:47
in close proximity to
6:49
from the past
6:52
i saw a recent update a couple months
6:54
ago
6:55
and the building that was standing here
6:57
still existed so just to the past couple
7:01
months
7:03
this heavy equipment has rolled in and
7:04
torn down
7:07
the big building that was right here in
7:09
the front next to the parking lot
7:11
and obviously a lot of storms go through
7:13
here in high winds so the fence is just
7:15
completely blown over
7:17
now over there you could see
7:20
a little bit of a foundation or some
7:22
rock work no pun intended you know
7:25
hard rock theme park but there's some
7:27
rock work there
7:28
and maybe even some steel beams or some
7:31
trees or something right there
7:33
still kind of protruding up out of the
7:35
ground
7:36
should probably zoom in a little better
7:38
on that again i'm not going to walk on
7:40
the property especially
7:42
where the heavy equipment is
7:49
that's one of the few things left
7:49
looks like there's something off on the
7:50
horizon too over there next to where the
7:52
lagoon was
7:53
but all this is rubble looks like an
7:56
earthquake rolled through here but it
7:57
didn't
7:58
it's just bulldozers
8:04
or something similar
8:04
just got to be careful driving through
8:06
this
8:06
looks to be a downed
8:08
light pole here
8:10
okay this
8:12
appears to be
8:14
where the main entrance was right there
8:16
as i pull back as the wind is very
8:17
strong coming in from that angle so
8:20
pull back but this
8:22
seems to be the main entrance plaza
8:24
where you'd pull in
8:26
pay to park
8:37
all grown over
8:37
figures how many happy guests that first
8:39
year it opened to quite a bit of fanfare
8:41
the locals loved it
8:42
but only lasted one year
8:45
and then the attendance started to
8:47
diminish dwindle drastically
8:49
and no matter what they did they just
8:50
couldn't bring people in
8:59
yeah this is probably a beautiful entry
8:59
play at one point
9:01
wish i could have seen it or been here
9:03
in its heyday
9:05
for some reason it just kind of slipped
9:07
past my radar back then
9:09
i knew of it
9:11
but never went when it was open
9:13
and then years later when it sat here
9:16
and you could still see the rides
9:18
you couldn't get in
9:19
they had a lot of you know a lot of
9:22
people on property just watching the
9:24
facility so it wasn't something that was
9:26
accessible
9:28
but as you can see now you know with
9:29
this fence down
9:34
but truthfully and this kind of elements
9:34
and weather i don't know really walking
9:35
around out there
9:37
oh what is that over there is that a
9:38
tram
9:41
i see something way off in the distance
9:42
directly in the center of the screen
9:46
i can't tell if that's like a snack bar
9:49
or a tram or a boat
9:52
right in the middle of the screen
9:55
has like a red awning it's like either a
9:58
boat or a tram that would be my guess
10:04
why that would still be out here is
10:04
beyond me though
10:06
because you can see right there
10:09
the heavy equipment there just
10:11
obviously they're not working today
10:18
something is almost looks like a little
10:18
tiny sparkling fire over there too right
10:20
in the middle
10:22
right kind of in the middle of the
10:23
screen now what is that
10:31
it's like a glimmery shining item
10:31
that's peculiar after closer inspection
10:34
i realized what it was are some little
10:36
tiny
10:37
flags that are waving in the breeze
10:40
over there there are little orange
10:43
flags that are in the in the ground
10:44
that's it almost looked like a
10:47
a little flame
10:48
from a fire but it wasn't it was just
10:50
the
10:51
orange waving in the wind
10:53
see some of the brickwork has sprawled
10:55
over here
11:00
i do love a good dark ride but i wasn't
11:00
able to go to the one in here
11:03
wow there is a lot
11:05
of equipment out here no workers today
11:09
destroyed metal beams over there look at
11:11
that
11:13
no telling what that's from
11:14
and piece of the brick wall there that
11:16
still hasn't been demolished
11:18
but soon will be i would imagine another
11:21
developer bought this land they're going
11:23
to put something else here and they got
11:25
to clear it out first usually something
11:26
does not get destroyed or
11:30
unless something else is going to go in
11:32
its place it doesn't make sense to spend
11:34
the money to tear something down when
11:35
the land's not being used so
11:41
it's usually how things work
11:41
there's another great relic when it was
11:44
freestyle music park
11:47
the basically freestyle music park came
11:49
in tried to do away with the hard rock
11:52
name they didn't think it was marketable
11:54
enough and it deterred some guests
11:56
with the connotation of hard rock
11:59
but freestyle music park didn't work
12:00
either
12:02
obviously
12:04
guest parking gate one administration
12:07
and receiving okay it appears as if
12:08
there was an amphitheater
12:10
right here so i'm going to kind of peek
12:12
through the fence that's still standing
12:14
and see if i can see some of the rubble
12:16
from that amphitheater you can even see
12:19
how it has that amphitheater type of
12:21
seeding arrangement with the stage being
12:23
there then the guests up there i'm right
12:25
there where that blue dot is so i'm just
12:27
going to look away from the parking lot
12:29
and see what i can see
12:38
right about there is where the
12:39
amphitheater was
12:42
in fact these rocks rubble probably from
12:44
the stage
12:45
of that look at that bent
12:48
rusted out metal
12:51
right there
12:52
almost like a i don't know what that
12:54
would be like a
12:59
gosh your guess is as good as mine
12:59
right there in the little foliage the
13:02
dried up foliage
13:04
it is
13:05
it is chilly
13:07
got my hand cupped over the mic because
13:08
the wind is so strong right now
13:16
or at least feels
13:16
feels pretty strong with the the
13:18
crispness in the air you see medieval
13:20
times off there in the distance looking
13:21
on that satellite view
13:23
i am
13:24
in view directly across of where the
13:27
guitar the hard rock guitar was that
13:29
iconic structure would have been
13:30
directly in the middle of the screen
13:32
away from me
13:43
right about there next to the lagoon
13:44
you almost see like an indent in the
13:45
ground where the lagoon used to be and
13:48
appears as if on the other side of the
13:50
lagoon
13:51
is a standing building or two they have
13:52
not gotten to destroying yet so i'll
13:54
drive over the other side
13:56
see what i can see
14:01
see them right there
14:01
that kind of greenish awning building
14:04
that looks like it's original gonna pull
14:06
back out of the property and kind of zip
14:07
around to the other side
14:09
the property to take a look you can see
14:11
the fence torn down over here
14:14
and then that building over there that
14:15
was the welcome center that had that
14:18
kind of bird's eye perspective
14:21
guide map on the wall that's the one
14:22
that's over there right next to that
14:24
road but anyone can just pull into this
14:26
parking lot pretty pretty simply a lot
14:28
of birds going around
14:30
and pulling out the once beautiful and
14:33
manicured ah here we go
14:35
this says crew parking
14:37
okay so this might have been around the
14:39
back
14:40
of the property and the main entrance is
14:42
over there where those buildings still
14:43
might be standing
14:45
freestyle music park gate 2 crew parking
14:55
and i know it doesn't seem like much but
14:55
trust me this is a lot more than i was
14:56
expecting to find so this is i'm glad
14:58
i'm doing this
15:00
i i thought it was all going to be
15:01
leveled
15:02
but not
15:03
maybe 90 of it is 10 still here there's
15:06
now a new hotel here off of backstage
15:09
lane
15:12
this post looks like it's seen some
15:13
years
15:14
but where this fence is used to be from
15:16
where the new hotel parking lot is
15:19
into the backstage lane
15:22
through here you can see where the road
15:25
used to go in
15:27
off of backstage lane and another post
15:30
here
15:36
this is around the other side i kind of
15:38
drove around about a block or so around
15:41
this while you can see not a whole lot
15:42
to see left
15:44
from this from backstage lane now
15:45
pulling around the still in operation
15:48
medieval times medieval times
15:52
cable guy
15:54
but from this angle might be able to
15:56
see what's over this is also off of
15:58
backstage lane or backstage road okay so
16:01
yeah my assumption was correct over
16:03
there over the fence line there are a
16:06
couple of buildings from hard rock
16:09
almost said cafe hard rock park
16:11
back in there
16:13
see they're kind of graffitied up
16:16
and this shed here
16:22
yeah that shed's still there i don't
16:22
know what it was used for
16:24
but definitely still a couple of
16:26
buildings still on site
16:28
wasn't expecting anything as stated and
16:31
to give an example of where i'm at now
16:32
i'm going to peek through this fence
16:34
from the medieval times parking lot new
16:36
parking lot there
16:37
that's the blue dot and gonna look
16:39
across the lagoon from this angle
16:42
obviously satellite view has not been
16:44
updated because most of these buildings
16:45
are now gone but on satellite
16:48
they're still around i would imagine
16:50
little shed here has been commandeered
16:52
by medieval times there's a lock on the
16:54
door
16:56
but believe it was owned by the former
16:57
property that it was its neighbors now
17:00
there is this fence
17:01
this has not been blown down by the wind
17:04
but take a look
17:06
through here at the amount of rubble
17:10
that is inside there
17:17
and there's that building off on the
17:17
horizon that i was kind of showing up
17:19
from a better angle when i was up in the
17:21
parking lot a little bit more
17:24
and i'll just put my camera up over the
17:25
fence
17:27
just to kind of show
17:56
don't want to drop my camera over the
17:57
then i'd have to go get it and that
17:58
wouldn't don't want to do that ah might
18:01
get a better peek over here
18:12
grown over parking lot
18:12
i might be able to drive up in there
18:14
possibly
18:16
yeah i'll try to drive over there but
18:17
here's another guest parking you can see
18:20
medieval times right there
18:40
what it was like back in the day when
18:40
guests were showing up here with smiles
18:42
on their faces saying we're gonna ride
18:43
some rides
18:48
not today
18:48
this roundabout leads into what i was
18:51
just looking across that empty parking
18:53
lot
18:55
and they got these little
18:57
brick stanchions in front well concrete
19:00
right up here
19:02
i can drive through there very carefully
19:06
made it through that's enough room
19:10
drive up here and see what i can see
19:12
the interesting thing is i pulled in
19:14
there was a car pulled up to me i
19:15
thought it was someone that was going to
19:17
say hey you're not supposed to be back
19:18
in here and you couldn't drive down that
19:20
road but it was just someone else that
19:22
was looking around and they kind of
19:24
smiled and smiled and waved
19:31
so the fence i'm showing where the
19:31
all the heavy equipment is is over there
19:33
but there's this as well which
19:36
now this seems more obvious that this
19:38
was the main entrance plaza
19:43
take a look
19:44
palm trees are downed
19:47
there are some structures still up at
19:49
this moment
19:51
this was the main entrance of
19:53
hard rock park
19:55
that was so around the backside was the
19:57
guest entrance number two
20:00
and this was the main one
20:02
you see the focal point here
20:05
as you walk in
20:07
past the ticket booths and whatnot
20:10
there's an archway over there
20:12
still a couple buildings
20:14
nothing too major but there is a little
20:16
bit
20:17
in fact i think this was the main gate
20:18
let me walk over where the main gate was
20:21
doesn't seem to be anybody out here
20:23
at all
20:24
i just drove right in and the other car
20:26
that passed by and waved and kind of
20:28
nodded they were looking around as well
20:31
they drove in down this road which is
20:32
accessible as well
20:35
so where i was looking at first
20:42
with the fallen down fence
20:42
guess i should have drove around here
20:44
originally would have made a little more
20:45
sense
20:47
just pull right up and check this out
20:53
wow look at this the theming here
20:53
of this brickwork
20:59
this will all be gone very soon very
20:59
soon
21:01
the old lantern there or the old light
21:07
yeah theme park history
21:09
right here in myrtle beach south
21:11
carolina
21:13
the failed theme park only lasted a year
21:24
fascinating fascinating stuff
21:24
this is as far as i'm going to go in i'm
21:26
not going to go
21:27
deep into there i'm just going to go to
21:28
the right to the edge here
21:30
but pretty neat pretty neat to see i
21:32
think i've seen about everything that's
21:33
still standing either from the zoom lens
21:35
and you know the main entrance started
21:37
here so this is kind of this is where
21:39
i'm going to stop
21:41
this particular one and i'm going to go
21:42
over to the racetrack which is also
21:44
empty it is so chilly my eyes are
21:47
watering my fingers are numb i need to
21:48
get some gloves i realize i need to get
21:50
some gloves but i probably should have
21:51
put my secondary jacket on but i plan on
21:53
doing all this from the car
21:55
and excitement i pull down and parking
21:57
well i can walk up to the front entrance
22:00
let me get back in the car now
22:02
one last zoomed in look here from the
22:04
front entrance zoomed way in
22:10
at this barn-like building
22:10
metal contraption there
22:12
also a building there which has not been
22:14
demoed yet
22:15
and another one there
22:17
but the shingles and roof have been kind
22:19
of torn off
22:21
all the all these years
22:39
much more comfortable in the car i don't
22:39
think i'm gonna be getting out of the
22:40
car much more today
22:44
ice storm is rolling in a little bit
22:46
later
22:59
and drive up to the main where the main
22:59
entrance was now that i know where the
23:00
main entrance was
23:02
see what i could see see if there's a
23:04
sign there
23:05
however i think i'm gonna go back out to
23:07
the backstage road off property and loop
23:10
around
23:11
because they have one of these grates
23:19
does it appear as if they have the tire
23:19
puncturing metal up anymore but i'm not
23:22
going to take a chance
23:31
i don't need a punctured tire
23:32
so i'm just going to i got it in reverse
23:36
backing it up i'm going to go back out
23:38
this way and kind of loop around
23:40
last thing i need is a completely
23:42
punctured tire now loop back around onto
23:45
the property drove down this road
23:47
and this is where
23:48
the parking attendants would
23:51
stand
23:53
and their little
23:54
areas that their little work spaces
23:57
have been removed it appears
23:59
however
24:01
the signage is still over here they loop
24:04
over this way
24:12
they even had pass holders
24:12
back when it was freestyle
24:14
the freestyle part came after hard rock
24:16
park today's hours
24:19
pass holder parking
24:22
and right here is where the employees
24:24
team members
24:26
would stand and take your money
24:28
but they have removed the stand that was
24:30
right there that had the register they
24:32
gave you the little parking decal
24:35
and whatnot the electrical cords would
24:37
be right in there
24:38
there were about six of these one two
24:41
there and then the other side two more
24:43
so a total of four not six
24:46
and then you pay your you pay the money
24:48
not admission fee but you pay for
24:49
parking
24:51
and then you pull through here
24:59
and then you would continue down that
24:59
road to the main entrance past the
25:02
flagpoles which right now none are
25:05
waving in the breeze and have not been
25:07
for a very long time
25:10
well over a decade this place has been
25:12
sitting empty
25:19
over here however off to the side of the
25:19
property they're building some sort of
25:21
obstacle course
25:27
which does not have to do with this
25:27
property this is on the very next
25:29
section over
25:34
the church building over there in the
25:34
distance too
25:35
here's an emergency phone the phone's
25:37
not there anymore
25:47
appears also off to the side of the
25:47
property here
25:48
some truckers are using to store their
25:50
vehicles
25:55
they probably rent this space out
25:55
the truckers who need to to park
25:57
park their trucks
25:58
excited big the foot first ones here
26:01
first ones here
26:08
a little vacation reference
26:08
okay pull it up to the front
26:10
this would be the front entrance parking
26:11
on either side
26:13
parking around the back another one of
26:15
these emergency
26:17
telephones and
26:18
all the rubble and decay
26:20
and what has been bulldozed
26:23
for the former hard rock park
26:30
straight ahead
26:30
that was the tour if it wasn't so cold
26:33
i would
26:34
do my interpretation of chariots of fire
26:37
chevy chase
26:39
running through this park
26:46
yes i know that was in southern
26:46
california
26:48
vacation but just gives me those vibes
26:50
it's this empty parking lot right here
26:52
first one's here
27:02
oh wow over here at this intersection
27:02
away from the property
27:04
is this sign with the arrow still up
27:08
look at that
27:10
that's kind of reminiscent of rock and
27:11
roller kosher right with the guitar the
27:13
loop-de-loop
27:18
freestyle was what
27:18
popped in after hard rock
27:20
but the whole place is only open a
27:22
couple years total i also wanted to add
27:24
in the remains
27:26
of the myrtle beach speedway
27:29
which are over here to the side opened
27:31
up in the 50s believe it closed a couple
27:33
of years ago
27:34
there's also some heavy equipment out
27:37
tearing it down
27:49
a couple of very iconic notable
27:49
myrtle beach places that are being just
27:51
torn out
27:52
okay the road i'm on didn't didn't take
27:53
me back over there like i thought it was
27:55
so kind of backtracking but getting a
27:57
side view of it here
28:12
still got the lights up
28:12
for at least a short while longer
28:16
and the track's right over that berm
28:18
and there's quite a few trucks in there
28:19
removing debris
28:21
so it is an active site so i'm not going
28:24
to go back there
28:25
but i just wanted to show that
28:27
because this is another
28:30
unique spot for myrtle beach
28:33
i'll show the satellite view i'll show
28:34
the the track still back there you can
28:36
still kind of see the layout of the
28:38
track but still see the layout of it and
28:40
where i'm parked obviously is that blue
28:42
dot
28:47
currently being destroyed i can hear
28:47
them in there working they can hear it
28:50
you can hear the destruction happening
28:52
now in the removal of debris
28:55
so it might not even be hardly anything
28:56
so maybe the lights are still up but
28:59
that's the speedway
29:01
right over right over there and that's
29:03
gonna do it for today
29:06
checked out a couple of relics of the
29:07
past here in south carolina myrtle beach
29:11
oh there is a real beehive of activity
29:13
back in there the side is still here
29:15
myrtle beach speedway be a part of
29:17
history
29:22
pretty fascinating
29:22
i'll see the next video the vlog
29:25
is over