The couple are outdoor lovers who dreamed of turning Santa's Village into a forested, mountain bike wonderland, a goal that has largely been accomplished.īut after purchasing the land in 2014, they found themselves the unlikely owners of a destination that many in Southern California had a deep, nostalgic attachment to.
No one was injured, but power was lost and everyone was sent home.įor the Johnsons, it was a crudely abrupt lesson in operating a theme park, one of many they'd learn over the next decade of wrestling with bureaucratic, construction and creative challenges. So we're pulling an extra 13 to 20 amps, and we end up boiling and blowing the transformer.'Īnd with it came an explosion of transformer oil near the front of the park. 'But some of this infrastructure is original, and it was super cold and windy, and everyone was scrambling, plugging in wall heaters. We're running this thing at its theoretical level,' says Bill Johnson, 57, who owns the park, now christened Skypark at Santa's Village, with his wife, Michelle, 51.
King Celwyn Claus narrates a story with Princess Evergreen Claus at Skypark at Santa's Village.
